


Highwayman

by nessundorma345 (wastrelwoods)



Series: The Madman and the Trickster [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Daddy Phil because why not, F/M, I got carried away shh, M/M, Pepper and Rose have a lot in common actually, Pepper may be the only BAMF here, Tony as a Time Lord
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 17:35:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastrelwoods/pseuds/nessundorma345
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are a lot of good reasons why the Mechanic doesn't take on passengers anymore. But, he has to rationalize, even from the beginning, Pepper Potts was never just a passenger. </p><p>A prequel, or an origin story, or something completely different. Set chronologically before Fallen Star, inasmuch as time order matters in a Doctor Who universe.</p><p>(The Madman and the Trickster, episode three)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Highwayman

**Author's Note:**

> _I was the match and you were the rock_  
>  Maybe we started this fire  
> We sat apart and watched  
> As all we had burned on the pyre  
> You said, "We were born with nothing  
> And we sure as hell have nothing now."
> 
>  
> 
> Bastille - Things We Lost in the Fire

_2010\. Malibu, California, Earth_

Their journey began, perhaps unsurprisingly, with an explosion.  _What the hell,_ Tony considered, with a bright, false smile, _might as well go out with a bang._  

"Just hit the button, sweetheart!" The next blast was closer, jarring the shuddering frame and nearly sending him flying. Falling. It was all the same, a regular Reichenbach Falls kind of showdown. 

"You'll die!"

He nearly screamed, "So?" but bit down on his tongue hard enough to draw blood instead, flinching as a third shot crackled directly overhead. Stane was chanting in the background, a broken record of accusation and execution, and sparks flew, branding his skin where it was bared to the night air, filling his nose with the smell of burning flesh and wanton destruction. 

"Sorry, Pep," he gasped, "I promise, next date won't be like this. No explosions, even. Well, I can't promise that. I'll make it up to you, take you to the Diamond Planet, 's lovely this time of year." Tony let his eyes flutter shut, picturing himself and the woman together; somewhere quiet and dimly lit, with a bottle of champagne; her strawberry hair spread over a blanket with careless grace. It was a nice thought. "Hit the button and run, _now_!"

For a second, there was nothing, and his eyes flew open to take in the burning city and the decimated rooftop and the man he had considered a father covered in armor and mutated with hate, growling, "Ex-ter-min-ate." 

And then the world caught fire, glowing white-hot with electricity, and he was weightless. The pain was nothing, and then it was everywhere and nigh unbearable, and then it all faded into blackness.

*

For a moment, hovering between dark and light, he felt like he was regenerating. His skin burned from within; light shimmering under the surface of his eyelids. Also the pain, like he had been drawn, quartered, hanged, and summarily beaten with a large stick. 

Suffice it to say, it made things like thinking, moving, or, come to think of it, anything more complicated than just breathing really difficult, so he at least had a pretty good excuse for the dull smile that split his face when his eyes opened to a soft, kind, face dusted with freckles. Warm blue eyes glinted with worry, full lips parting in nonsensical words that echoed through his hollow head without comprehension.

"--have to wake up, Mr. Stark. Tony? Are you--?" Her voice was like coffee and brandy. It was one of his personal favorite blends, which was probably why he'd taken the girl home in the first place. He was home, right? 

"I think I'm dead," he said, blinking groggily. "Either that, or I just had the most _glorious_ orgasm, cupcake." Her eyes narrowed to dangerous blue slits, and he felt his smile widen. God, his whole body ached, muscles tense and ragged in a way he didn't usually associate with mornings after. Strange, but since his head did feel like it was stuffed with cottonballs he didn't give it much further consideration. "What's your name, lovely?" 

She froze, blinking down at him in apparent confusion, and a stray lock of red hair tumbled from its perch behind her ear. "You don't...?" She cleared her throat, flashing him a small, white grin that spoke volumes of false cheer. "Pepper Potts. We were talking on the phone, before you _had me implode the rooftop you were standing on._ " The smile bittered to accusation on the last phrase, and he groaned, head dropping back against the rubble again. 

"Fuck." The memories played back through his mind, each one another blow to the gut, until the full-body ache that encompassed his awareness felt truly well-deserved. He'd been running; he'd always been running and never realized, and he hadn't run fast enough. "Fuck, Stane!" he gasped, shooting upright, and Red held him down, manicured claws digging into the charred armor at his shoulders. "I have to stop him, he's going to burn everything--"

"Tony. _Tony_ , its fine, that...thing is gone." 

His attention refocused on her, something that was probably important detatching in his brain as he traced the line of her cupid's bow with his eyes. "You hit the button. You killed him." 

The line curved in a grimace. "I really don't think..."

"No, that's--" He sat up further, rested weight on a palm tentatively, and winced when the movement sent another spark of pain lancing up his arm. "Wow." Some convoluted part of his hindbrain wouldn't stop proposing a round of victory sex, though by all rights he'd met the woman an hour ago. Still, it wouldn't have been the first time he'd done that sort of thing. "That's actually...you might be the most interesting thing that's happened to me for ages, Miss Potts." For a brief moment, he gave into the impulse, let his chest swell with the desire to lean up and capture those soft lips with his own, and felt one corner of his mouth twist up in a smile. She stilled, hands flattening out to rest gently on the armor, stroking her thumbs over the ruined metal. 

Her lips parted. "Tony." 

His eyes snapped up to meet hers, the smile falling. "That's not my name." 

A gentle crease appeared in her brow. "What?" 

"Tony. It's not my name.."

She shifted away from him, and the night air seemed to grow colder in her wake. "What? Tony, you've always... what do you mean, that's not your name?"

"How long?" His eyes narrowed to dark slits, one hand following her retreat to grip one arm firmly. "How long have I been Tony Stark?" 

Her lips pressed into an impossibly thin line. "Tony. You're forty-five, you were born in Malibu on the sixteenth of--"

"No," he barked, "How long have _you_ known me?" It had been months, probably. Too long. God, that was just perfect, because it was going to be hard enough as it was to cover this up and slip away...

"Seven years," she said, instead, and his stomach churned in sudden cold dread. Her eyes burned with an accusing amber fire. "Seven long, thankless years, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have a company without me, Tony, so please stop pretending you don't know who I am-"

"I don't-"

"Do you think this is funny? Is this some kind of practical joke?"

"No, Pepper, I just-"

"Because I swear to God, Tony, this is where it ends." Her eyes narrowed, one manicured nail coming to rest between his eyes. "All week I've been dealing with this clusterfuck, and you just keep locking me out! First there was that flying car, and then Mr. Stane showed up, and now you're _here_ ," she prodded pointedly at the suit.

"Just let me explain..."

"Playing Optimus Prime with a glowing circle implanted in your chest, and I've just blown up your R&D building under your orders, and I think we just murdered your new business partner, so." Pepper took a deep breath, "What's going on?"

The silence stretched between them like a gaping chasm; smoke from the reactor, charged with an electric tang, still hovered on the breeze. He swallowed, the suit suddenly stifling and freezing at once on his scorched skin, and met her expectant gaze as she sat back, waiting.

"...It's a long story." 

*

"What _is_ that?"

"Look, would it kill you to stop asking questions and just _listen_ , here?" She pursed her lips again - seemed fond of doing that, or maybe he was just particularly aggravating - but said nothing, placing hands on hips and gesturing for him to continue by way of a thin, upturned eyebrow. "Its what I was telling you about. Handy little storing spot for a dormant consciousness, and damn near impossible to open. Though, it is easy to misplace, so the concept isn't foolproof." The metal was smooth in his hand, cool and unassuming, and he could feel it pulse in his hand to a beat he'd assumed for years was a faulty _tick-tick-tick-tick_. He felt it now, the sensation in his chest somehow strange and familiar at once, the beat of two hearts still pumping adrenaline through his veins. 

Two of Pepper's slender fingers slid over the surface of the watch, like a blind man reading braille. It seemed unlikely that she would understand the broken circles of his native tongue, as the ridges carved over the surface were warmed by contact with her searching fingertips. Her lips had fallen open again, he noted, trying not to stare too obviously. "Beautiful," she murmured. 

He blinked in confusion, and then looked down at the watch again, inhaling deeply. _Very. Very incredibly distractingly beautiful._

"I remember this," Pepper continued, nails scraping over the latch, not pressing down, only testing. "You always said this watch was your father's. That's why you didn't open it." She half-scoffed, then seemed to remember herself, biting her lip gently. "Too many... memories," she clarified, and he let out a surprised burst of laughter. 

It took only a split second to remember why the sensation of laughter was so foreign. The tightening in his chest made something ache deep inside of him, lancing pain turning the laugh to a quiet gasp. He raised a hand to the circle of light sitting between his hearts, rubbing unconsciously. There was another thing to get used to. "Memories," he said with a dark undertone. "Life would be so much easier without them." 

"What did you remember?" 

"Nothing good." The watch slid open with a loud click, innocuous in its plain face, sounding out a time that was probably true somewhere far south from there and a few hundred years to the left. He watched the seconds pass by, feeling his hearts synchronize to the steady beat, and realized that the churning in his stomach was the turn of the Earth. "Which reminds me," he turned, fixing Miss Potts with his best expression of false cheer. "I'll be leaving now." 

He spun on his heel, ignoring her sudden protest of, "Wait! Why?" Her nails dug into his shoulder sharply, bringing him to an annoyed halt. "You have a company resting on your shoulders, Tony, you have a life! Responsibilities," she hissed. "People who _need_ you. Remember?"

"Just did," he retorted, burying the twinge of something in her tone that would otherwise have piqued his interest, and pulling away to turn again and face her. "I'm the Mechanic, by the way, nice to meet you, Miss Potts. Can I leave you my company?"

"You can't just _go_!"

"Can too."

"You," her eyes flared with a wave of indignation so intense that he blanched, frozen firmly in place as she jabbed a finger angrily at the forlorn-looking office chair, covered in plaster dust, sitting where it had rolled back with the force of the blast. That's right, he considered somewhat sheepishly, there _had_ been explosions. "Sit," Pepper seethed, and he swallowed his pride and a slough of other responses, complying. He lowered himself gradually into the seat, creaking and groaning under the joints of the suit before remembering what a spectacularly bad idea it would be to force a few loose tons of titanium alloy onto the poor chair. 

"Power down," he muttered, and remembered, again, that he'd lost audio contact with the system when Stane had blasted his helmet into a pile of corrugated scrap. Grumbling, he reached for the manual switch, and was rewarded with the heavy clang of the suit disengaging, and heaping at his feet. "Sweet shit, that's better," he sighed, rolling his shoulders once and relishing the literal weight lifted from his back. 

The whites of Pepper's eyes shone, fixed on the arc reactor with a look of vaguely nauseous awe, which pretty well summarized his own feelings about the damn thing. "Is that..." she breathed, and let her jaw clamp shut, rigid once again. "Explain," she demanded, and gestured to the chair, which was probably also sighing in relief, having narrowly avoided a splintery death twice in a night. 

"Right," he said, spreading his palms wide in a mixture of goodwill and eager showmanship, "What do you want to hear?"

"That...thing," she began, after a moment's pause. "What is it?"

He chuckled to himself, dropping his hands to the armrests, where they gripped a little too tightly. "Sonic pacemaker," he settled on, tapping idly as he could on the center of the device and ignoring the stabbing cold that pierced his ribs in reply. "Got stuff in my chest, worming its way toward my hearts, and this stops it." She leaned back against the table, inhaling like the air around them held the answers to her unspoken question. "It's also a power source," he continued, "one of a kind. I guess it didn't translate to my human body all that well." He winced, realizing his slip-up.

"You're not...not _human_? You're an alien?" Pepper's shoulders tensed, bunching the fabric of the suit jacket around her like a cave. "God, I _might have known_ ," she breathed. 

"What's that supposed to mean, Miss Potts?"

"You," she gestured, one hand still pinching at the bridge of her nose. "You and your brain, and your dreams that aren't dreams, and your ancient eyes, it's just so...there can't be a word for what you are." 

"Time Lord," he supplied, with a rush of bitterness and memory. "The very last one." He screwed his eyes shut for a moment, assaulted by images and emotions and her wide blue eyes brimming with sympathy and curiousity. "There's no one else left." 

"So you turned into a human?" 

His eyes slid open again, humming in surprise. "That? Oh, no, I was running."

"And Stane?" 

Ten smooth crescents in the scorched wood would later evidence his bloodless grip on the seat arms. "I didn't run fast enough. The bastard caught up." 

"And?"

"And?" he echoed, incredulous.

"Why was he chasing you? What did he want?" 

_Revenge. A persistent personal vendetta. To tear me apart from the inside and remake me into something as hateful and heartless as himself. _The Mechanic drew the watch from his sleeve again, letting his fingers dance over the clasp as his thoughts warred relentlessly. "Funny thing about Time Lords," he settled, finally, "They're powerful. They burn at the center of time, ancient and ageless, and they see to the ends of every universe. They topple worlds and see them burst into new life, and even when there were others of us they came in pretty short supply, so." There were times he almost managed to forget how good of a liar he was, until the diversions and misleading truths slipped from between grinning teeth and reminded him so sweetly. He held the thing between two fingers, then closed his fist around the watch and flipped it like a coin. "I hid. Guess I wasn't really subtle enough."__

__An honest-to-God giggle burst from Pepper at that, which was more disconcerting than it had any right to be. "There are lots of choice words I could use to describe you, Ton...Mechanic, and subtle is definitely not one of them."_ _

__He dragged out a long sigh, having expected nothing less but hoped against hope that there would be some circumstance that kept him from the public eye. It was the natural charisma, probably, or the fine bone structure. Or the total screaming genius, which, you know, begged to be appreciated by a general adoring public. Honestly, if he ever met someone who managed full-tilt diva-hood while remaining largely in the shadows, he'd probably have to literally take them apart and see how they worked. "Fuck," he muttered into his hands, before sliding it up to tousle his hair. "It's gonna be harder to leave than I thought."_ _

__Her eyes blistered with hurt, like she'd offered something and been rejected, and a sudden thought occured to him, making his stomach churn with dread. Fingers tightened in his hair, bringing his elbows down to rest on his legs, until his head was resting firmly in his hands as his eyes searched the glass-studded floor. " _Fuck_ ," he echoed lamely, "You. We." His mouth twisted sardonically, and he angled his head up to meet her eyes, leaning precariously forward in the seat. "We don't...we aren't," he tried, faltering at Potts' confused silence. "Are we? I didn't...shit."_ _

__That sweet curve of a cupid's bow angled up again, her smile quiet but plainly amused. All the freckles seemed to dance over her nose when she smiled, and he found himself still squashing firmly the urge to plant a kiss on each one. God, how deep in was he?_ _

__"I don't think I've ever seen you like this. Speechless." She ran a hand over her skirt once, brushing off an invisible speck. "It's a good look for you, Mr. Stark. Speechless, sober, and wearing actual pants." Her smile faltered. "I guess you're not really Tony, huh? You just have the same face."_ _

___What's it look like, this face?_ he almost asked, _It's changed since I last saw it._ "Is this a bad time to ask if we've had sex?" he said, instead._ _

__She blinked, and pressed her lips in a thin, false, professional smile. "Never." Her voice was clipped, like he'd pushed exactly the right button to make her go all robot. "I never...we danced, once."_ _

__"Was it a nice dance?" He could almost hear the music, something soft and boring, but those eyes would shine so bright under ballroom lights. It would have been a nice dance._ _

__"And we walked up to the roof together, and we talked."_ _

__"And?" He could hear the hopeful twinge in his voice._ _

__"And?" Pepper echoed, smile less false and more bitter. "And you went downstairs to get me a drink, and..."_ _

__"Olives. You seem like an olives woman." Her tapered fingers on the stem of a martini glass, and olive between her delicate teeth, tasting it on her tongue when they kissed--_ _

__"And left me there, alone, all night."_ _

__"Oh."_ _

__"Yes."_ _

__He leaned back and continued to shift until the chair was balanced a little precariously on its back legs, rocking unsteadily, which he ignored in favor of cocking his head in renewed interest. "But you're still here. What are you, then? To me. Tony. Whichever."_ _

__"Glorified babysitter?" Some of the bitterness left her smile, but not all. "I do...well, no, that about covers it." Potts shrugged a little, adjusting the suit jacket like she was cold. Was it cold in here? He didn't feel it. Well, no, he felt everything at once, so overwhelming that all he could register was numbness and a vague sense of indignant pride._ _

__"I don't need a--"_ _

__"Yes, Mr. Stark, you do."_ _

__"--babysitter," he finished. "I mean, I don't even have a company to run. This is me, officially shirking all responsibility, dumping Tony Stark here and running off to meddle with important historical events." The Mechanic sprung from the chair like a ball from a cannon, clapping his hands together. "Tell them I've died, or something, Pep. It's mostly true anyway."_ _

__"I'm coming with you," she interrupted, and he skidded to a stop faster than if he'd run headfirst into a wall._ _

__"No. Absolutely, definitely not."_ _

__"You can't go alone!"_ _

__"I don't take passengers," he snapped, his eyes flashing angrily, praying that the open aggression would run her off._ _

__"Oh, yes you do," she snapped right back. "You need me."_ _

__He murmured another, "No," throat closing up with fear, watching her die a thousand different ways, just like Yinsen or Rhodey or anyone else he'd ever dragged along and doomed. He ran alone, especially now. He was alone._ _

__"Tony."_ _

__He growled low in his throat, still frozen in place, and saw her hand come to rest on his shoulder, reflected in the shattered glass coating the floor. "Mechanic," she said, softer, and he let his eyes flutter shut._ _

__"You have a life." Fingers danced over the arc reactor again, the way he never allowed anyone else near it, tapping out the thump-thump-thump-thump of his two broken hearts. "I can't ask you to leave all that behind. I can't ask you to put yourself in danger for me, Miss Potts, not when I can manage just fine on my own." The truth tore its way out of him with its jagged edges, leaving him hollow and aching._ _

__She squeezed his shoulder once, lightly, crystal blue of her eyes glinting in the scattered shards at their feet. "I'm pretty sure you couldn't tie your shoes without me, actually." When she let go, he had to stop himself from following, leaning back into her gentle touch, and cursed. "Besides," she whispered entirely too close to his ear, warm breath tickling his too-long hair and sending a pang of electricity through his bones, "I distinctly remember you promising me a second date."_ _

__*_ _

__"I'm not going in _there_ , Tony, are you crazy?" _ _

__"Yes. And my name's not Tony. Come on!"_ _

__"It's a flying car!"_ _

__" _He_ is a time machine. He's called JARVIS. JARVIS, say hello to Pepper Potts." _ _

__JARVIS' valiant attempt at a greeting was drowned out by her screech, "A _time machine?__ _

__"Don't you have a sense of adventure? Also, that was just rude. You interrupted my ship."_ _

__"You have a ship? _And it's a time machine?_ "_ _

__"Well, yeah. Time Lord, time travelling, kinda goes with the job title."_ _

__"I thought you were a mechanic?"_ _

__"That too." He slung open the passenger door. "C'mon, think about it. Anywhere, anywhen you wanna go, baby. All of time and space at your fingertips."_ _

__Her fingers hovered over the door. "Can we get back? If we need to?"_ _

__He propped it open with one foot, swinging around to plant a hand on each of her arms. "Of course you can come back anytime. But why would you want to?"_ _

__*_ _

__"It's bigger _on the inside_. Oh my God, it's bigger on the inside. But that's impossible!" The Mechanic snickered, and she glared at him. "You bastard, you could have told me! You didn't think I'd need to know a little thing like that? 'Oh, by the way, Pepper, it's _bigger on the inside_ , no big deal?'"_ _

__*_ _

__"See? There's my mom, and that's her boyfriend, Phil. He was so nice. He never seemed like it, but beneath the surface he had a heart of gold. He got me a cat, and of course I turned out to be deathly allergic. Mom broke up with him like it was his fault, but we kept up secretly, me and Phil. We used to talk about adoption, making him my Dad officially, but we figured he already was, in every way that mattered. " Her eyes sparkled with so much joy that it physically wrenched at his chest, and he felt so in love that it burned. He smiled wider when she turned to him, checking to be sure he was following. "How about you? Got a mom and dad?"_ _

__The burning in his chest plummeted to icy depths, freezing his smile where it was. "No."_ _

__"Oh," she breathed, then cursed, "Shit. Sorry, I didn't mean..."_ _

__"It's fine," he said a bit tersely, peering over her shoulder at the gangly little girl, strawberry hair swinging around her freckled face as she danced around the park with Phil, who was nearly as short as Tony, and looked half as old as he felt._ _

__"Virginia! Time for your cake," called the plump woman with the violently red hair, and the Mechanic narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He cast his gaze back down at Pepper, who had gone as red as a fire hydrant._ _

__"Virginia, huh?" he chuckled, and earned another slap on the shoulder for his troubles._ _

__*_ _

__"Virginia", he called her, mockingly, for at least a week after, every opportunity he could get, until at last she backed him into the wall with an angry glare and informed him that if he was going to call her "Virginia", she'd be calling him "Tony", and he wasn't allowed to complain about it._ _

__The novelty wore off soon enough, if not the taste of the syllables on his lips as he fantasized about writing that name on her skin, entwined with his own. Besides, it was just inconvenient to call her "Virginia" if the sound of the word was going to keep making him almost instantly hard. Which is how he ended up sticking mostly with "Pepper", while she continued to call him "Tony", until he almost believed it was really his name. It was comforting, somehow. It made him feel almost...human again._ _

__*_ _

__"Pepper," he gasped, the world spinning around him, and felt her grab at his hand, anchoring him, holding him a few minutes longer. Oh, God, it hurt, the bite on his ankle, it burned like fire. But he had to keep it concentrated there, couldn't let the pain spread. "Pep, it hurts." He moaned, loudly, and bucked against the steel wall, curling in on himself._ _

__"Tony, Tony, oh my God, hold on, please." The fingers of her other hand were cool on his forehead, another anchor point, but his control slipped for a milisecond and he recoiled from the touch, afraid of what he might do. "Tony, stay with me."_ _

__"Don't want to hurt you. Oh, God, what if I hurt you?"_ _

__"You won't hurt me," she soothed, "Just a few more minutes, that's all, and Happy will pull through, he'll stop them, we can go home."_ _

__He wasn't going to make it. Fuck, it was almost too late already. "Leave," Tony snapped, and winced at how close it sounded to a growl. "Please. Go back, tell JARVIS to act--" he shuddered again, grinding his teeth together, "Activate...failsafe. Virginia p-Protocol. Take you h-home." It was spreading, and he couldn't stop it. Oh, God, he was going to _kill her_._ _

__"No, Tony, no. I'm not leaving you. You need me."_ _

__"Yes," he panted, head twisting painfully to the side. "Need you...safe."_ _

__"Tony," Pepper kept muttering, fingers cool on his face, his arms, his neck as he jerked and twisted, trying to escape his own body. "Hold on, just hold on."_ _

__It took a painful effort to unclench his teeth wide enough to loose the words, "I can't. Please, it's too much. It _burns_." Her grip on his wrists tightened, and he felt blood beginning to trickle from his palms, where his nails were digging into the calloused skin, shifting into something unnatural. "Run, Pepper," he gasped, "Run _now--_ "_ _

__Tony's eyes flew open, and the light burned his retinas to match the fire coursing through his veins, unstoppable, as a howl of agony tore from his throat. Pepper, where was Pepper?_ _

__"I'm right here, Tony, please stay with me," she begged, and he cursed her with wordless howls, beyond speech, writhing and still fighting the change will all his remaining strength. She wouldn't leave, why wouldn't she leave? She was in danger. "Tony," she repeated, voice lower and steadier. "Hold on. That's an order."_ _

___Bite Run Fight Kill Rip Tear Blood Kill Burning Pepper Pepper Pepper Please Pepper Love Pepper_ He let that one thought be his anchor once he could no longer feel the cool pressure of her fingers for the fire scorching under his skin. _I love Pepper. I love her._ He felt it with every tug of his lungs, breathing in love and breathing out love, and the love was like fire mixing with the pain in his bones, consuming that fire until he slumped back against the steel, totally spent. _ _

__"Happy did it," she breathed against his skin, and he let his fists uncurl, still aching with the ashes of the fire that had ravaged him. "He came through. He stopped them all, Tony."_ _

__"Pepper," he whispered, by way of reply, letting it linger on his tongue._ _

__A muffled sob escaped her, arms shaking where they held him tight, keeping the demons at bay. "Never do that to me again."_ _

__Laughing shakily, Tony sank deeper into the embrace, letting his head rest on the curve between neck and collarbone, a pillar of strength. "I didn't exactly plan on this, you know." She made no response, only threaded a hand through his hair._ _

___Never,_ he promised them both, feeling the sentiment rattle the reactor in his chest. _I will never leave her with no way home. I will keep Pepper safe. God, I love Pepper.__ _

__*_ _

__"That's a nice car."_ _

__The Mechanic hummed distractedly, half-turning his head, and then hummed again in pleasant surprise. "I could say the same to you."_ _

__"Thank you," the stranger said, a bit stiffly, but his eyes swept fondly over the shining red and silver of his own car all the same. "She's called Lola."_ _

__There was something oddly familiar in the shape of the vehicle, especially the tires. His fingers itched with the pride he felt only when confronted with his own work, and a wistful smile caught at his lips. "She's in prime condition for her age. I can tell you take good care of her." The Mechanic let his gaze linger a moment longer on the stamped pattern of broken circles in the center of each wheel, running a hand absentmindedly over JARVIS' door as though reassuring a jealous lover._ _

__"I like my little pieces of history," he replied, his own attention directly on JARVIS. "Remnants of a golden age should be preserved with love and care." The Mechanic held back a scoff of derision at that, remembering a recent afternoon spent defacing cave paintings. "That's why I'm so drawn to yours, actually. I can't figure it out...what's the year? The model? It's like nothing I've ever seen before." The stranger's voice was eerily even, robotic in a way that JARVIS had never been._ _

__"Made it myself," the Mechanic drawled, unable to keep the edge of pride from his voice. "History isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes you gotta live in the present." A modicum of hurt flashed in the stranger's steely eyes, and he backpedaled, offering, "Speaking of. What brings you and Lola to this," he gestured fluidly at their decrepit surroundings, rusted swingset creaking in the breeze, "Fine historical monument? Seems an odd place for a vacation, although, probably a decent setting for a ghost story. Abandoned parks, definitely going on the official list of creepy things no one else ever finds creepy."_ _

__"It's a rendezvous."_ _

__"Ooh. Secret tryst? Tell me more," he falsettoed, leaning gently against the door._ _

__The stranger narrowed his eyes. "Something like that. I'm meeting my daughter." The Mechanic blinked, considering that it probably should have occurred to him earlier. How many people would be meeting in this dump on this day? But in his defense, the guy looked much older than the last time he'd seen him, and he hadn't exactly _seen him_ , per se, even then. "You look oddly familiar. Aren't you--"_ _

__"Phil!" Pepper grinned so wide that it looked painful, stepping around from the passenger side. Tony froze for a moment, watching the dim light catch her hair at just the right angle to set it on fire, the halo of flame framing her delicate face, and it was all just unfairly stupid that he couldn't take this moment to lean over and kiss her._ _

__"There's my girl," the stranger said, smile wide and genuine but edged with something not unlike wonder. They embraced, and Tony watched, something hollow and aching in his chest. Coughing, he rubbed at the arc reactor absently. "Where have you been? You promised to tell me, on the phone earlier."_ _

__Laughing brightly, she pulled away. "What do you want me to say?"_ _

__"I want the full debrief, Miss Potts," he demanded, and it was impossible to tell whether he was serious or not with his Vegas-level poker face. "Starting with your companion."_ _

___My queue_ , he supposed. "Hello, I'm the Mechanic--" _ _

__"Phil, this is Tony Stark--" Pepper began, their explanations blending together in a cacophony of jumbled half-truths._ _

__"What she said," he supplied, "Sort of." Pepper's surrogate father looked between them, face neutral, but clearly dissatisfied. "Sorry, let's start over." Tony grinned as unnervingly as he could, extending a hand plated in red and gold repulsor. "I'm the Mechanic, I used to be Tony Stark, I'm an alien, I abducted your daughter, and now I've brought her back."_ _

__"Abducted? I forced you to bring me along, and for good reason."_ _

__"Maybe I hypnotized you with my telepathic powers. You never know."_ _

__"You don't have _telepathic powers_."_ _

__"You don't know that, Potts."_ _

__"Tony, if you were capable of reading my mind, we wouldn't be here right now," she challenged, a desperate edge catching her voice. Taken off guard, he paused, trying and failing to understand her implication._ _

__"And what's that supposed to mean?"_ _

__The stranger coughed, slicing through the tension primly as he took Tony's hand in a firm, businessmanlike grip. "I'm Agent Phil Coulson with the United Intelligence Taskforce."_ _

__He nodded and shook, ignoring the pangs that still resonated through his ribcage and the twinge in the back of his mind that noticed how oddly tight and false Pepper's smile seemed. "Nice to meet you. Phil, wasn't it?." He smiled back thinly, but his gaze was calculating and aloof, almost threatening. Right. Pep's surrogate father._ _

__"I'm not sure I share the sentiment, Mr. Stark," he said warmly, grip tightening as Tony winced. "Pepper's a responsible girl, I know, but you? I've seen your face before, and not in places I see a face I can trust."_ _

__"What? Oh, that." He grinned again sheepishly. "Undercover work, Agent."_ _

__"That's funny. I didn't see much covering going on. Quite the opposite, actually."_ _

__"Phil," Pepper interjected softly. "He isn't--"_ _

__"Volatile, self-obsessed, narcissistic and hedonistic to the point of reckless self-endangerment?" Wrenching his hand free at last, Tony stepped back slightly, arms crossing defensively over the arc reactor. "Actually, I think that's a pretty accurate assessment. I'm not, however, actually a genius, billionare, playboy philanthropist." He coughed. "Anymore. Well, genius, give me that much."_ _

__"Clearly," Phil drawled, with a last terse smile. "Especially with--"_ _

__A French-tipped fingernail pointed sharply in both of their directions. "For the love of God would you two stop posturing? I want food, and you're paying," she gestured to Tony, who grumbled noncomitally, "And you're picking," to Phil, who nodded "because you have the actual capabilility to _remember_ when I tell you I'm allergic to something and don't try to feed me strawberry shortcake from New Earth to apologize for forgetting my birthday." _ _

__The Mechanic snorted, affronted. "We're not casting a very good light on me right now. Unfair."_ _

__"Accurate."_ _

__"Unfair!" he protested, "I do good things! I keep you safe." There was a heavy, unexpected sincerity to the words, and a heavier silence after, during which Agent looked him up and down once again, as though reevaluating, and Pepper looked at him with kind eyes that twisted at the knife in his gut. "I--" he began, but swallowed the rest, stomped out the desire to let the words spill out._ _

__Right on cue, JARVIS rattled ominously and began to smoke. "No, no, no no no!" Tony flew at the door, peered inside, and wrinkled his nose. "Shit, he's overheating!"_ _

__"What?" Pepper flew to his side, peered in at the console room, smouldering and blistering. "How?" Her brow creased in concern, and he mirrored the expression, only a little more guilty than he should have felt._ _

__"I have to go in and stabilize him," he coughed out, shutting the door and leaning against it as though to barricade them both from the inside. "Quick jump into the future. Half an hour?" Opening the door again, Tony winced. DUM-E let off another loud barrage of steam, the sound echoing through the corridors. "Two hours?" Interjecting as much uncertainty into the phrase as possible, he glanced nervously over at the real-life Man in Black standing impassively by his car. "Calling a rain check on that lunch date, sorry." He shrugged, letting his hands fall to pat at his pockets, in a way that seemed nearly accidental. "Wait, I'm picking up the check, aren't I?"_ _

__"What are you talking about?" Hands on her hips, she spun to fix him with another incredulous look as he fished through the pockets of his soft leather coat. "We'll stabilize JARVIS, then we can eat."_ _

__"No, no." Tony let out a soft noise of triumph, pulling out the thin, worn wallet. "I'm a third wheel here anyway. You two go off and talk about families and childhood or whatever it is you do for fun." He tossed the wallet at Agent K, who caught it with a raised brow. "I'll deal with this," he finished, pulling open the door and sliding in._ _

__"Tony, you can't--" hissed Pepper behind him, and he froze, jaw clenching in compunction. Spinning on his heel, he ducked back out of the ship and tugged her in close, covering the curve of her lips with his own. She gasped before responding, a sound halfway between a sigh and an indignant squawk escaping her. Tony drank her in, letting the kiss hold a thousand words that he'd never dare speak aloud and praying to the powers that be that she wouldn't understand them, because she'd try to stop him. She always did._ _

__The kiss went on, too tender, much more gentle than he'd intended to make it, and he cursed, pulling away. Pepper stared back at him, wide-eyed, a faint blush coloring her freckled cheeks. "Have fun, Miss Potts," he murmured, and turned away._ _

__He kept his eyes low, forcing himself not to watch, not to let his gaze flicker up to the window for a second as the engine switched on. The sound echoed hollowly in the emptiness, more lonely than it had ever felt before._ _

__*_ _

__"So he's more than a friend, obviously."_ _

__"Phil, don't. He's not like that,"_ _

__"Isn't he?"_ _

__She pursed her lips, and Phil sighed softly. There was nothing to be done. "The paper," she cleared her throat, dancing away from the subject, "It's psychic. It should say whatever you want it to."_ _

___Very useful_. He flipped open the wallet that the stranger had given him, eyes widening ever so slightly as he read the message printed on it. _Perhaps he really is different than he seems._ Phil snapped it closed again, flashing her a warm smile. "In that case, I suppose we have reservations to the new Thai restaurant I've been meaning to show you."_ _

__Her smile was wider, but still unbearably sad, as though she was looking at him and seeing a ghost. Phil put it down to her travels with the Mechanic. Nothing good ever came from alien influence. Just last week, a grudge match between a couple of them had leveled a small town in New Mexico. _Take care of her,_ the note said, and he felt a swell of protectiveness, wrapping his baby girl in another hug. _For me. Consider it a first and last request._  _ _

__"I missed you so much, Dad," she whispered against his shoulder._ _

__"Welcome home, Virginia." He planted a kiss atop her fiery hair, and wondered if she knew that her Mechanic was dying._ _

__*_ _

__He was walking through a street market in Budapest, arms folded over his chest, hair too long and unkempt now that there was no one to keep up appearances for, when the flash of red caught his attention. He couldn't say why, only that he found himself breaking off from the crowd, following a mixture of instinct, paranoia, and total disregard for personal safety until he found himself alone, facing the darkness of an alleyway. Suspicion prickled at the hairs on the back of his neck, and the Mechanic turned, raising one repulsor-clad arm toward the figure that had landed behind him silently as a shifting shadow. " _Jó estét kivánok_." A harmless enough greeting, colored otherwise by the thin blade she twirled between two fingers._ _

__He stared the woman down over his spread fingers, teeth clenched in a bitter smile. "Try it," he barked in Hungarian. "Please. Entertain me."_ _

__"I've been looking for you for a long time," she replied, straightening and taking a casual step forward, looking for all the world as though she didn't notice the weapon pointed at her, or the way the Mechanic flinched as she moved closer. Something guttural in her accent belied her nationality, Russian with a prediliction for foreign tongues to rival his own, but then he'd already had eight hundred-odd years to learn languages and no limitations like being confined to one planet._ _

__"You've wasted your time, then." He stepped back warily, foot catching against something in the refuse and causing him to stumble back into the brick._ _

__"Because you're nobody special, _igen?_ Only a Time Lord." She flipped her hair back, sheathing the knife. Red hair. Why were the nosy ones always ginger? He'd never been ginger before._ _

__"Who are you?" He switched to Russian, allowing himself one small victory in the surprised twitch of her brows._ _

__"It doesn't matter." Sure enough, the language flowed smoothly from her tongue as only from a native. "I'm much more interested in you, Mechanic."_ _

__He jerked into action at the name, elbow bending just slightly in preparation to fire, but a lightning-fast stinging pressure at his neck stopped him short and sent him tumbling sideways into the wall, clawing weakly to keep himself upright. "And you're not even going to buy me a drink before drugging me?" he slurred. "Rude!"_ _

__She smiled down at him as he blinked, grabbing at the dart someone had shot into his neck and wondering when the world had tilted the full 180 degrees. "Sleep well, Mr. Stark." He tried to snarl, but his vision began to dissolve into bubbles first. Just before the darkness took him, he registered the thump of another pair of boots, siginfying the arrival of the unseen sniper._ _

__And that's how he met Clint and Natalia, really._ _

__*_ _

__"Run!" he had said, grabbing one of each of their hands, and they had followed blindly, not keen to spend eternity trapped in the makeshift prison along with the overdressed and horned red bastard they'd managed to contain with extreme prejudice. Now, though, out of sight of the building since become a black hole suspended inside another black hole in the back of a permanently temporally disturbed coffee house in the middle of Budapest, they hesitated. "A getaway car?" Romanova questioned, looking at JARVIS so dismissively that the wound to his pride caused Tony actual pain._ _

__"No," he snapped, and flung open the door._ _

__"It's--" She circled the ship once, eyes wide, running her hands over the chrome. "Impressive, Mechanic."_ _

__"Just A Really Very Intelligent System, JARVIS for short," he extrapolated, patting the console fondly. "He'll take us anywhere we want to go, and some places we don't. Also, he travels through time."_ _

__Romanova swore softly in Russian. Barton blinked. "Cool." He waltzed in ahead of the redhead, who was obviously trying very hard not to seem impressed, albeit unsuccessfully. The Mechanic smirked, but winced when Barton took the opportunity to toss his bow onto the console and sink into one of the seats along the edge of the room. Romanova followed close behind, prim and proper in her seat as her gaze roved critically, a strange contrast to the archer, who had climbed up and now crouched on the seat like a bird of prey. Neither seemed inclined to give further input._ _

__"Twenty-eight percent, Sir. Approximately fourteen days," JARVIS chimed, and Tony stiffened, one hand white on the console. "Is it really advisable to take on passengers now, Sir?"_ _

__"Fourteen days until what?" Natalia echoed, tone rife with suspiscion._ _

__"I've got a pie in the oven," he fibbed, with a false smile._ _

__"Must be some pie," Barton interjected lamely, not even bothering to hide his incredulity._ _

___To die for_ , Tony almost replied, but bit down on his tongue. There was a fine line between facetiousness and cheesy horror film dialogue, and besides. There was always the off chance that he'd just undergo a plastic surgery of the personality again, even if the presence of the arc reacor cast a dismal shadow over his prospects of survival under any form, regeneration or no. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff," he half-explained instead, with an appropriately vague hand wave._ _

__"Please never say that again." Her eyes were stern, but something in her tone smacked of acquiescence. If the Mechanic wanted to keep his secrets, he was welcome, and should expect no less of either of them. It was a sacrifice Tony was willing to make. The last thing he wanted was to waste his last two weeks on pity-filled looks as the last grains of hope trickled through the hourglass._ _

__He leaned into the hum of the console, unlocking a few levers and twisting a button or two without sparing the screens a glance. "So." They stared silently. This was going to get seriously disconcerting, and soon, he decided. "All of time and space at our fingertips. Where should we start?"_ _

__*_ _

__"Let me get this straight: you've met me before, but I only just met you?"_ _

__"Once. Five years ago."_ _

__"What, and you've been trying to find me again ever since? I know I'm charismatic, Nat, but that seems excessively creepy."_ _

__"You made a very...distinct impression."_ _

__"How?"_ _

__"You're the Time Lord, Stark, you should know this. It's simple: some time in your future, you go back in time and meet me. Honestly, just be glad it only happens once."_ _

__"I know that, but--"_ _

__"But what, Mechanic?" Her tone is icy, like she knows how close he is to voicing what he really wants to ask, _If the time he has left is running out so quickly, when will he get the chance?__ _

__*_ _

__"Synthesis has been completed."_ _

__He leaned forward in his seat, the lights of the console playing over his face in the growing darkness. "And?"_ _

__"Even with the implemented modifications, Sir, the core will continue to break down," JARVIS admitted, almost too softly to be heard, but then Tony had expected nothing less._ _

__"I'll just take it out, right? I can do that. I still have options?" JARVIS is silent. "Fuck," he breathed, letting his head sink forward onto the console._ _

__"Not nearly so many as I would like."_ _

__He focused on breathing in and out, slowly, every contraction of his hearts pushing the poison deeper into his bloodstream. Sitting here in the silence, the Mechanic could almost feel it. "Regeneration?"_ _

__The console lights flashed from blue to a dismal, bloodstained red as the AI confirmed his suspicions. "Infected cells have built up immunity to the recoding genomes of your regeneration sequence, and output from the arc reactor is necessary to initiate regeneration. The thing meant to keep you alive is also killing you, while simultaneously preventing you from reversing the effects."_ _

__A bitter laugh shook his spine. "What will you do without me, J?"_ _

__"Languish, Sir." It's meant to be droll and sarcastic, of course, but something in the transmitter must have been fried because it sounded way more open and honest than Tony's comfortable with._ _

__"Never," he promised, clutching at the ship like he could hold it all in his hand and keep it safely tucked away forever. "You'll forget about me soon enough. Nat's already a better pilot than I've ever been. Should've been a Time Lord, that one." He thought about them all, shining and golden and _alive_ , the few people he's ever had the guts to care about all as happy as he can make them, and hated himself for the whimper that twisted in his throat. "Will it hurt?"_ _

__There was a short pause, and he wondered if he'd even spoken aloud, when JARVIS replied, "Not if I can help it."_ _

__*_ _

__"Got anything good to drink on this hunk of space-trash?"_ _

__"Talk about JARVIS like that again and I'll drink it all in front of you." When Barton snorted, he amended, "Ever hear of a little place called Alfheim? Best liquor for a hundred light years in any direction, 200 proof with a tendency to spontaneously combust, and don't even get me started on the women."_ _

__"Not really my area of expertise," the archer growled, but he stared at the bottle in the Mechanic's hand hungrily all the same._ _

__Nodding in understanding, Tony pulled out a shot glass and poured. "The men are nothing to wink at, either. Flexible, too, and not in a gross way, which can happen. Let me tell you, Raxacoricofallapatorius is not a good place to be when you're looking for a good time."_ _

__Barton took the glass, eyeing the three fingers of swirling crimson liquid warily. "Haven't you ever just wanted to find one person and...I don't know, stay? Sounds sentimental as shit, I know, but..."_ _

__"Never," he replied tersely, raising his own drink high. The chlorophyll burned bitter in the back of his throat. Resolutely, he pushed Pepper from his head. "Funny thing about Time Lords," he contined, softly, "Is I either run the risk of outliving everyone I care about by a thousand years, or dying at the drop of a pin and leaving them all stranded. But I can't stop traveling." Patting the console fondly, he let the glass land heavily on the surface. "I'll be with JARVIS 'till the day I die," he finished, and had to hold back a giggle._ _

__"Yo ho," Barton toasted, downing the drink in one scorching swallow, so far away from getting the joke that it was laughable. "A pirate's life for me."_ _

__*_ _

__Advanced Idea Mechanics could go and fuck themselves sideways with a rusty spoon, Natalia decided, firing another round back at the seemingly invincible...things that sent waves of flame chasing after them to bite at their heels. Not least because of how inconvenient the whole situation was, dangling as they were from the rafters of a building that shouldn't have actually existed. The physics-bending of the whole arrangement was fascinating and all, she acquiesed, reloading, but heights had always been Barton's area._ _

__At least she was holding up better than the Mechanic, who seemed to be going slightly green around the gills. "Put on the suit," she called, and paused to see a wave of something resembling helplessness and resignation simmer in his eyes as he met her gaze and nodded dimly. He struggled to his feet, the armor flying up from the aether to close around his staggering form, and scarcely had the mask lowered over his face when he pitched too far to one side, tumbling over the edge._ _

__"Damn it, Stark," she cursed, with a few of her personal favorite words tacked on for good measure. Belatedly, she heard the suit kick-start, followed by at least one minor explosion. "Clint. How's ammo?"_ _

__"Not holding up as well as I'd like," the archer called back, stabbing downwards with the bow itself, a makeshift blade with dulled ends. "What's eating Stark?"_ _

__"I don't know," she spat, charging up the electric pulse bracelets that the Mechanic had presented her with earlier that day. "How much did you say you drank last night?"_ _

__"He wasn't drinking any kind of alcohol I've ever seen before, but then neither was I. JARVIS, got any home remedies like the one you gave me?" The comms crackled, as if the AI was hesitant to reply._ _

__"...there is nothing that can be done, Mr. Barton."_ _

__"Keep talking and I'll cut power to everything but Return Protocol, JARVIS, don't think I won't," interjected the Mechanic, his breathing labored and his voice harsh. "Oh, fuck."_ _

__The AI went silent, but he must have been replying on a private channel, because Stark snapped, "You think I don't know that?"_ _

__"Not at all, Sir. I am simply aware that sometimes, there are things one should not face alone."_ _

__Frowning, Natalia crouched lower on the ceiling beam, glancing briefly at Barton, who shrugged and stepped hard on the fingers of an unfortunate adversary._ _

__"We're running out of time, Sir," JARVIS warned._ _

__The Mechanic sighed deeply. "Alright, then. If it's the only way..."_ _

__"I would not be asking if it were not."_ _

__"Clean 'em up, then. Hey, Bonnie and Clyde!" he called, "Hang on to your hats!"_ _

__What exactly the weapon was that this command issued, Natalia didn't know, but she found in the immediate aftermath of the resulting explosion an opportunity to string together a few phrases that would have made Barton blush, if he weren't dangling by two fingers from a ceiling beam. She reached for his hand, peering over the edge in time to see Stark waver and collapse, the armor crumbling away from him like fractured pieces of eggshell._ _

__Up close, they could see the spurts of golden light that rose from the center of his chest, a thin cloud over the blue-white light of his circular implant. Wavering, the light made as if to spread, but flickered and dissipated like a snuffed candle. The light danced over his face once, twice, blinking out shortly with each attempt to intensify the glow._ _

__He looked like a firefly, something strange and otherworldly, and for the first time Natalia appreciated just how _alien_ the man was. He rolled onto his side, attempting to stand--a motion which she and Barton both aborted immediately--and something else came into view, a circut-board pattern of thin dark lines crawling up his neck, like poison beneath his skin-- _ _

__"Stark, you _pizdabol_ ," she announced, sucking in a soft breath. _ _

__"Go to hell," he responded half-drowsily, trying weakly to shake their grip and rise to his feet as wave after wave of golden light rushed over him and disappeared._ _

__Barton, less suspicious and less trained in avarice than she, held firm even as he turned to her. "What? What the hell is he--?"_ _

__"He's dying," Natalia snapped, and Stark grinned a horrible, wavering, false smile._ _

__*_ _

__"What the flying fuck kind of a weapon did you set off, Stark?"_ _

__The Mechanic's smile stayed on, even as another pulse from the arc reactor sent half his cells spasming in a half-backed attempt to fix themselves. Regeneration hurt like a bitch, that much was universally recognized, but the heavy, throbbing ache in his chest as the energy receded, bleeding out in a surge of light and heat, that _burned_. _ _

__"It's not from the blast, Clint, he's been poisoned. Stark, who poisoned you?"_ _

__"Yeah, and why are you glowing?" interrupted the archer._ _

__"Me, and also me," he choked out. "My system's trying to purge the palladium, rewriting every cell to keep me alive." With every beat of his hearts, the reactor kick-started the process again, until his veins felt ragged and abused by the constant surging of energy._ _

__"Hate to break it to you, Stark, but it doesn't seem to be working all that well."_ _

__Letting loose a rough laugh, he leaned forward into their arms, once a hindrance and now a support. "Yeah, well, performance issues, not uncommon. You know, one in every five--"_ _

__"How long do we have?" Romanova cut him off, and probably quite right too, because even though the Mechanic could all too easily picture his last words being a dick joke, it didn't shine too bright a light on his legacy._ _

__"At least seven lifetimes, if we can find a stable element that won't disintegrate under extreme particle acceleration and synthesize it in the next...ten minutes or so. Well, no, I'll be comatose for around twelve hours before the rest of my organs shut down, but if anything that lowers our chances of finding anything worth trying. And believe me, I've tried a lot." Straightening as much as he was able, he elbowed them both. "C'mon, then, help me back inside my ship."_ _

__Natalia stayed frozen in place, a curiously intent expression on her face. "Palladium, you said?"_ _

__"Straight from the core of a missile."_ _

__Nose wrinkling in disgust, Barton compensated, supporting half the Mechanic's weight on one shoulder. "What's it doing in your chest? Dude, I know you're an alien, but that's just messed up."_ _

__"You know what," he coughed, "You make a good point. Hold on." With a shove, he stumbled away from Barton, crumpling to his knees, one hand closing over the arc reactor, ready to twist and pull. Damn if he was spending his last hours unconscious and helpless._ _

__"Don't you _dare_ , Stark." There was a loud click as Romanova disabled the safety of her newly reloaded pistol. The Mechanic laughed, wagering he knew exactly which direction she was pointing it in. _ _

__"Or what, you'll plant a bullet in my head?" Clint made a strangled, confused noise, and the Mechanic shuddered as another wave of regeneration energy swept over him. "So many new and exciting options before me. That's a nice change."_ _

__"Don't be an idiot. I'll plant one in each of your hands if you move one inch closer to taking the arc reactor out. I'm not going to let you kill yourself before I can save your life, Tony."_ _

__So that was how it was gonna be. Raising his hands above his head, he met her steady gaze, sweat glistening on his neck. She nodded, once, so sure of herself that his biting retort about futility and what he knew to be impossible stuck in his throat. "...Okay," he agreed, softly, allowing himself to close his eyes and pray for a miracle._ _

__"Is someone going to tell me what the fuck is going on and how we're going to fix it? Like, it doesn't even need to be strictly in English, I speak other languages, but you guys seem to be doing this internal telepathic thing instead--"_ _

__"Later, Clint. Dose him with the lithium dioxide, it'll counteract the symptoms temporarily. JARVIS, open the doors. Stark," she  continued._ _

__"No more Tony?"_ _

__" _Stark_ , stay alive. There's someone you need to meet."_ _

__*_ _

__"How long did you say you've known Stark?"_ _

__Pepper looked up from her pho, eyes a little wider than normal, like she'd forgotten he was there, stuttering on the "S-seven years?" that she shot back, and bit off too quickly, like she shouldn't have spoken. Not a lie, not quite, but close enough to raise a few alarms in the back of Phil's mind. "I mean, it's hard to say..."_ _

__He smiled widely, obliging. "That's odd," Phil stated matter-of-factly and as airily as he could, "Considering that Stark Industries only popped up about three years ago. And then you both left to go...traveling together--"_ _

__"Damn it, Dad, it's not just some road trip with a man I met last week," she snapped, and then blanched a little, the way she always did, inhaling through her nose and continuing, "He's a time traveller, actually."_ _

__Several puzzle pieces clicked into place all at once. Phil took in the wider curve of her lips, the hair just a few shades blonder, the way that she clashed with the world around her when he glimpsed her face in the corner or his eye. "How far out of time are you, Virginia?"_ _

__"It's nothing," she waved it off, diving back into the bowl of pho. "Just a few years too early. When Tony comes back I'll leave you to the Pepper you know, and in the meantime," she glanced up again, smile bright but eyes blank, almost glistening, "I'll just have to avoid giving you the outcomes of any major baseball games."_ _

__Phil nodded, slightly disappointed, and waved for the check. He turned the thin paper booklet over in his hands for a few seconds, brow creasing, and then handed it off to his daughter, leaning over the dimly lit wooden table. "And what if he doesn't come back?"_ _

__*_ _

__"How did you park a car on this ship?"_ _

__"You must be the high and honorable Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you, Captain." He extended one gauntlet-clad arm to shake. The soldier ignored him. "You come highly recommended, apparently, but I gotta say I wasn't really expecting the outfit. The weapon pointed at me, maybe. That seems to happen a lot, go figure."_ _

__"You're trespassing and if you value your life, you will identify yourself."_ _

__"No, see, that's actually what I'm here about. You should be proud of me, valuing my life highly enough to break into high security government ships. I'm the Mechanic, by the way."_ _

__"He says he's a mechanic, Colonel. Do I bring him in?"_ _

__"No, because then he'll stop being your problem and become my problem, and then I'll be unhappy," came the crackle over the headset, "Just shoot him."_ _

__"So, not Steve Rogers, then," he interrupted, not turning on the repulsor yet. He was running on reserve battery after all. "Damn, this day just keeps on getting better, doesn't it? Listen, buddy--"_ _

__"Private Gilmore Hodge."_ _

__"Good for you, form and rank, you'll be out of diapers next. Now, I have a few really good reasons for you to put that gun down and take me to Rogers. Look around. Where are we? How many exits and entrances?" Hodge glared, unconvinced. "I just drove a car into the middle of your base without going through a single one of those doors. Also, I'm on a time limit, and that makes me desperate, and you don't want to be anywhere near in my way when I'm desperate."_ _

__"Is that a threat?"_ _

__"It's a fact," he said, cold as steel. "Oh and also? I didn't come alone."_ _

__Hodge groaned when a shadowy foot drove into the back of his head, sending him crumpling faster than a house of cards. The newcomer landed lightly on the tips of her fingers and toes, then straightened, brushing dust from her knees. A third figure slid down from the ceiling, a dark look of disappointment coloring his features. "Nat! You said I could have this one."_ _

__"Timing is everything, Barton. Nice speech, by the way, Mechanic."_ _

__"I try." He grimaced as he bent to retrieve the headset and microphone. "Colonel."_ _

__"What the hell did you do to my soldier, you showboating asswipe?"_ _

__The Mechanic chuckled, angling the speaker away from his ear. "Be glad she didn't break out the hallucinogenic lipstick."_ _

__"You try seducing your targets sometime, Stark, tell me how long it takes before you get bored and start making up new ways to knock them unconscious."_ _

__"Are we talking years or centuries, here?"_ _

__"Hey!" The Colonel burst in, "Remember that part where we were talking? because I'm starting to forget."_ _

__Rapid-fire, the Mechanic turned his attention on the headset. "I want to see Steve Rogers."_ _

__"Rogers? Skinny, asthmatic kid, too short for the standard uniform? There's all sorts of important people on this ship, and I don't think Rogers is one of them."_ _

__He glared at the speaker, a fairly ineffective tactic. "Are you questioning me? Did you not get any of that fear and awe inspiring speech, or do I have to use small words to get it through to you?"_ _

__"For the love of God stop patronizing, Stark," muttered Romanova from behind him._ _

__"I can't turn it off and on like a lightswitch," he explained, "It's my default mode of speaking: nine-plus-hundred-year old mad geniuses are always patronizing."_ _

__The door creaked open, and an unassuming man with a white lab coat and smallish eyes peeked through. "Hello," he called in heavily accented tones, "I hear you're looking for Steven Rogers."_ _

__*_ _

__Five minutes later, they were walking down an empty hallway, and the Mechanic was beginning to be annoyed by the sheer number of people who _weren't_ Rogers. Not that Erskine was bad, but something in his mannerisms and gentle smile hit the mark just slightly too close to Yinsen. Added to that, the Mechanic could feel the lithium dioxide wearing off, the bitter metal taste in the back of his mouth resurging. "Find Steve Rogers, really? I didn't give you anything better than that?"_ _

__"Look, it was five years ago," Natalia hissed back. He stopped and turned._ _

__"What is it you're not telling me? Because it can't be this; I didn't just...create a paradox with the potential to swallow the sun just for a few more borrowed years! I made peace, Natalia, I had a thousand failsafes set up, everything taken care of. You and Clint, Jarvis, Pep--" he swallowed the last syllable, but not fast enough._ _

__She smiled a narrow-eyed smile, seeming to have expected nothing less. "We don't give up, Tony. Not on ourselves, and not on each other. That's what you told me. And," she continued, cutting him off sharply, "You also told me, in case you needed pursuading..." Leaning up, she whispered the rest in his ear._ _

__The Mechanic's eyes widened, and he pulled away as though burnt, well aware now that Clint and Erskine had stopped and turned to stare. "Oh."_ _

__"Oh?" said the man who seemed like a living echo of all the ghosts of his past at once._ _

__"Looks like my ledger's further in the red than I'd counted on," he explained, and couldn't help but inquire while the opportunity was showing itself, "You don't happen to know a guy called Howard Stark, do you?"_ _

__"Know him?" Erskine's eyes lit up, "I work with him! In fact, he's got a lab here, just around the corner. Stark is our top civilian consult in weapons development, and he knows his schnapps."_ _

__The barest flicker of an idea flashed through the Mechanic's head. "Take me to it."_ _

__"I thought--"_ _

__"Change of plans."_ _

__"Alright, but I don't have a key."_ _

__"No problem," he said, eyeing the scanner on the corner of the door, and then his hand. He'd have to make some slight adjustments in the DNA..but then that was hardly a big ask with so much regeneration energy burning through him. He felt Erskine gasp behind him as the golden light flooded his open palm. "We've got a lot in common, you could say."_ _

__"Stark," Barton mused, seeming to connect the dots, "He was your father?"_ _

__"Bingo," he sing-songed, pressing his palm against the pad, which glowed green almost immediately. "Got it in one. Only decent gift I ever got from Dear Old Dad," he glowered, "genetically similar fingerprints. And, if I'm right..." he continued, shoving the door open with one foot, "Son of a bitch, there it is."_ _

__"Dunno about you, Stark, but I'm seeing a lot of tables and a lot of weapons, and unless you're planning to shoot yourself better again..." Barton trailed off._ _

__"Try it and I'll bring you back to kill you myself," clarified Natalia._ _

__"Weapons manufacturing 101," he strode over to one of the far tables, gestured at the holo-screens, and then sidetracked to the manual switch because they weren't holo-screens. "The best offensive weapon in the world is useless," hefting the thing with a grunt, Tony turned to face the bemused group in the doorway, "against a really good shield. Input, JARVIS?"_ _

__"Molecular structure would indicate a previously unknown element, Sir."_ _

__"Previously known," he corrected, "This is all there is. More importantly, will it work?"_ _

__There was a beat before the AI dared reply. "I...I think it might be just what we need. Further testing will be required, of course--"_ _

__"J, what have we already discussed about running before you can walk?" The Mechanic's smile stretched his face so wide he looked slightly deranged as he slung the giant circle of silvery metal onto a waiting table. "Erskine, take Nat to go find Rogers, and Barton, here with me. We're gonna do science!"_ _

__*_ _

__Several decimated walls, a few near miss with a sledgehammer, one laser, and a simultaneous kidnapping later, Natalia turned her head to the side, smiling comfortingly and knowing that it didn't matter because they were both blindfolded. "Hello," she whispered to the man now regaining consciousness, tied up behind her. "You must be Steve Rogers."_ _

__*_ _

__"What are those, alarms?"_ _

__"I still can't believe you made me lift all the heavy things."_ _

__"Would you rather have done the physics equations? Don't think so, hon. Seriously, why alarms?"_ _

__"There's been a break-in," barked Colonel Philips, the sound echoing down the length of the hallway. "Hydra break-in, we are on high alert. Arm yourself and stay together. Fuck's sake, Corporal, what is it?"_ _

__"Code Orange," stammered a thinner voice, and both Clint and Tony turned to the door in expectation. "Erskine and one of the new recruits have been taken. Some dame, too, not one of ours but definitely not civilian."_ _

___Son of a bitch,_ Clint and Tony thought in relatively swift succession. Philips could be heard marching past the door, bellowing, "Gentlemen, we need an extraction team. Move, move--" Their eyes met over the table a split second before the Mechanic dove for the stabilizing reactor like a bird of prey._ _

__"Sir, diagnostics are still being run, you can't-" JARVIS fretted._ _

__"Field test. This takes priority," he said darkly. "Barton, turn around." The archer did so before even realizing it, and stayed put because a little paranoia was probably warranted over something literally implanted in his chest. He understood mistrust._ _

__The Mechanic gasped as the old reactor unhooked, slumping forward slightly. Clint could hear the table squeal as he propped himself against it to complete whatever process got the new prototype in place. "Oh, that burns like a motherfucker," Tony winced, then gasped again._ _

__"Can I turn around now?"_ _

__"Shut up, I'm busy not dying. Shit. Woah." He groaned, louder. "Tastes like coconuts and...and metal." The bluish glow intensified suddenly, synchronized with a ragged yell from Stark. Clint pulled a face._ _

__"Hurry up with your not dying before I leave to find Nat myself."_ _

__"Don't talk out of your ass, Barton," he criticized, winded, "You don't even know where we're going."_ _

__"And you do?" Clint spun around to see him surrounded by hovering screens, cross-referencing images with one gauntleted hand, and, as always, swallowed a pang of 'Damn, I wish I could do that'._ _

__"Yeah, because she's sending up a signal. Told you those tracking bracelets would come in handy. But, even better, I know who's gonna be there when we arrive. AIM's Nazi twins."_ _

__*_ _

__Pepper waited. After a while, she stopped, deciding that if Tony was going to show his face again, he could bloody well look for her himself. She had more important things to do, she mused, letting her eyes slide from the television to Phil, who was staring intently at a Secret Government tablet._ _

__Maybe she wasn't being forced to relive the past, she decided. Maybe this would be her chance to change it._ _

__*_ _

__They took Steve first, mostly because he kept putting himself between the goons and the lady, spitting blood when they broke his nose, generally being his dumb noble self. If only Bucky were here, he sighed, staring straight ahead as the guards marched him, blindfolded, down the corridor. He'd have broken all of their noses in turn while managing to make Steve feel something less than worthless and charming the dame off of her feet._ _

__Maybe not quite like that, he reconsidered, remembering how she'd scratched and spat twice as hard as he'd been able, turning every insult the men could throw back at them, sharp as knives._ _

__"I know you're brave, Rogers, but any idiot can be brave," she'd hissed at him minutes before they were dragged down opposite hallways. "Decide whether or not you can afford to be good."_ _

__He heard not a single sound from the adjacent chamber, though he himself was tense with fear as the men in HYDRA uniforms ordered Doctor Erskine to do this or that, strapping him down and changing him. Brave meant nothing here, Steve realized as they pumped him full of something that boiled in his veins and stretched him from the inside. Good was all he had._ _

__*_ _

__Natalia didn't know what it was they were doing to her, only that it burned like ice and felt like drowning._ _

__Shaking until she thought she'd fall apart, she struggled until straps snapped in two. Then, she felt like a weapon, like a bullet in motion, deadly as one of Barton's arrows. She was inhuman precision and speed._ _

__And, she realized, when she wrapped her legs around the men trying to hold her and knocked them down and split their skulls against the floor, she was stronger. Impossibly stronger._ _

__*_ _

__"I'll kill them. I'll kill them all. I'll rip them to shreds with my hands. I'll tear apart every molecule and disitegrate them into fucking _dust_." These were the first words Steve heard the Mechanic say. _ _

__"Get in line, Stark," Barton growled, and stuck an arrow through the eye socket of the man at his feet, just to be sure._ _

__"I should have been here earlier," he tugged at his hair, "I could have stopped this, I should have-"_ _

__"If you'd come earlier, you'd be dead," Romanova grinned. "Look at me, I'm fine."_ _

__"Exactly! You were shot!" Hands pried the blindfold away from Steve's face at last. The world looked much sharper post-serum. "Twice!"_ _

__"A little durability is no big deal, Mechanic."_ _

__"Nat," said the archer softly, and her smile faltered._ _

__"I'm not compromised," she murmured, eyes half-lidded. "So, this will prolong our lives..."_ _

__"Indefinitely, as far as I can tell. If you weren't basically a Time Lord before, you're toeing the goddamn line now, Romanova. Pity I won't be leaving you my ship, after all."_ _

__They barely acknowledged him, smiling grimy when Steve blanched at the strewn corpses of HYDRA soldiers, boiling with quiet anger at Doctor Erskine's broken body. Only when they arrived back on base, the Mechanic offered him a job._ _

__He looked between their faces sadly, glancing over his shoulder at the base, and knew that he couldn't stay with all these broken people. Maybe later, when he'd outlived his own grandchildren and lost the last of his goodness to time. "It's been an honor," he excused, instead, and the Mechanic burst out laughing._ _

__"God, you're so noble it's sickening. Here," he opened the passenger door of his flashy car, pulling out a round circle of a strange dull silvery metal. "This should really be yours, Cap."_ _

__*_ _

__Clint cleared his throat. "That's a sweet car, dude."_ _

__The man in the suit glanced mildly his way, offering a slight and distracted smile that made Clint's heart constrict a little. "Thanks, I think." Blinking at Clint's answering grin, he let his own smile widen into something a bit more geniune and proud. "Her name's Lola."_ _

__Clint nodded appreciatively, eyeing but not daring to touch. "Lola, huh? Got an antique sort of ring to it. Very golden oldies." He took a step back to appraise further. "And in such good condition, too. You must take very good care of her."_ _

__Suit Man's gray eyes sparkled with pride and joy. "Old things have a kind of underappreciated beauty."_ _

__"You're not so bad yourself."_ _

__"You just have to take the time--" he stopped abruptly, gaze snapping from the car to the archer. "Sorry, what?"_ _

__Clint grinned shamelessly. "Got a golden oldies kind of name, too?"_ _

__"I can't be more than ten years your senior," Suit Man defended, his brows creasing._ _

__"Okay, but you've got a poker face like a war veteran," Clint pointed out. "It's impossible to tell how old you really are." The man in the suit crossed his arms over his chest, clearly unimpressed. The hook was slipping. "Don't worry," he rationalized, "Poker face is sexy. I'm seeing it as a challenge, actually. I wanna see how much it would take to break your composure, preferably in a fun way."_ _

__Suit Man floundered a bit at that, clearly unsure whether to blush or allow his pupils to dialate in a kind of suspicious way. He seemed to settle for raising one eyebrow and uncrossing his arms. "Phil Coulson," he admitted, and _score one for the Clintster_._ _

__Golden-oldies enough, Clint supposed. "Clint Barton," he offered. "Suit like yours, my first guess would be office job, but with that car? I'm thinking vaguely menacing government agency, am I right?"_ _

__Phil didn't flinch or skip a beat. "I don't talk about that."_ _

__"Ooh, classified? Sorry."_ _

__"What about you, Barton? You were quick enough to get a read on me. There's not many people who can do that."_ _

__"There's not many I would bother to try it on," Clint supplied honestly, then glanced across the street. "I travel," he decided, after a short pause. "Used to be with a circus, and then with the most dangerous woman in Europe, and now-" _All of time and space, and I've saved the world three times so far, and its only been three weeks, and I want you to come too, Agent Phil Coulson_. "Well, I don't think I can talk about that with a near stranger. We'll need a coffee date under our belts at least." Clint winked. "Confidential stuff, can't be too careful."_ _

__Coulson stamped out an answering smile. "That makes sense."_ _

__"So what do you say, Phil?" He leaned in conspiratorially, "Have a drink with me?"_ _

__"Actually, this might not be the best time." He folded his hands and tilted his head apologetically. "I'm waiting for someone at the moment."_ _

__"Oh, no problem, I can do tomorrow," Clint soothed, then backpedaled, stomach twisting. "Who?" It came out maybe a little more strained than he wanted to admit._ _

__A short laugh danced in Coulson's steely gray eyes. "My daughter." He explained, and wasn't that just the bitch of liking men with a touch of maturity? Clint gritted his teeth, cringing inwardly. _Smooth move, homewrecker_. The agent's fond smile faltered at Clint's kicked puppy expression. "Oh, no, not like that. I'm still..."_ _

__"Single?" Clint finished hopefully. Phil laughed again, aloud this time._ _

__"So forward, Mr. Barton."_ _

__"You like it," he teased, swallowing when Phil turned to him with a considering glance. "Get a drink with me. You can tell me about your daughter, I can tell you about Natalia and Tony."_ _

__Phil winced. "Not the best idea," he said, glancing across the street again. "I know too many Tonys."_ _

__Clint nodded, having to admit he made a good point. "So you're waiting?"_ _

__"I don't want to interfere with _that_." This time, Clint followed his gaze to the two figures on the sidewalk opposite, bickering in raised voices made unintelligible under the buzz of traffic. The redheaded woman pursed her lips, slapping the Mechanic across the face, apparently not for the first time. "Maybe I should. I have a few unanswered questions for Mr. Stark, but I think I should let her finish first." _ _

__Clint shrugged, raising an eyebrow at Tony's defensive posture, mouth forming a quick slough of excuses, none of which seemed adequate to the woman. "I don't know," he said to Phil. "Sometimes it's better just to look at things from a distance." As he spoke, the Mechanic and the woman surged forward at once, meeting halfway in a kiss that was more like a battle than a romantic gesture. Even from across three lanes of traffic, the danger of the kiss progressing to a round of manic voyeuristic sex was disconcertingly apparent. "On second thought, maybe we should interrupt them," he reconsidered._ _

__Eyes narrowed like he was seriously considering castrating the promiscuous alien bastard, Phil nodded, and dashed into the street._ _

__Clint followed, stopping barely five feet from the agent's back when the redheaded woman broke away to look in their direction in wide-eyed horror. "Dad," she mouthed, "No!" Clint's ears rang, alarms blaring in the back of his head as he dove forward, shoving Phil away. The car hit him instead, head-on, the impact sending him spinning, and the archer blacked out before his head even hit the pavement._ _

__*_ _

__At the first screech, Coulson looked up from Barton's body. His eyes were still wide, slightly scraped hands trembling at his sides. "What the hell..?"_ _

__The Mechanic held up a gauntlet, scanning, a dark suspicion already forming in his head. "Reapers," he murmured. "Damnit, Barton, you had to go and create a paradox."_ _

__"He saved my life," Agent snapped. Tony looked at him sadly, jaw clenched. The moment he understood was the worst moment, something fracturing in his eyes. "Oh."_ _

__Still standing frozen behind him, Pepper let out a soft noise of pain. "Oh God," she breathed, and Tony could hear her sink to the pavement as her knees gave out. "Oh, God, I shouldn't be relieved, but," She inhaled shakily. "If I had to see it again, Dad?" Coulson straightened from his crouch smoothly, brushing past Tony to wrap his arms around Pepper. "I couldn't watch you die again."_ _

__The Mechanic spun around, unable to give them their moment of privacy under the circumstances. "Again?"_ _

__Pepper sniffled and hiccuped a miserable attempt at a giggle, propping her head on Coulson's jacket. "You're a terrible driver, Tony."_ _

__*_ _

__"He's back!" They looked up, saw him standing there like he didn't even notice the overgrown bats swooping around his head, or the crackling jagged line that had opened up in the sky._ _

__"How the hell?"_ _

__"Clint?" Natalia ventured hopefully. Her voice wavered on the word, but it was good to know she could still respond to stimuli. He turned, gaze flitting briefly over them, and smiled in recognition, jogging into the empty street. Only when the light passed through him, Tony could see a flicker._ _

__"No, not Clint," he barked, holding her back with firm blocking arm. "An echo." Even as he spoke, a very familiar car rounded the bend, the ghost diving forward and into its path, tumbling to land juxtaposed with the cold, empty shell of Barton's body, where it vaninshed into thin air._ _

__"If the car hits me instead," Agent breathed, and the group turned to him as one. "Will this all stop?"_ _

__Pepper shook her head violently, staring at the echo car with hatred and fear in her eyes. The Mechanic exhaled slowly, teeth aching in his still-clenched jaw. He could never save everyone, no matter how he tried. "...Yeah," he admitted._ _

__He nodded, understanding, and looked away. "Then there's really only one choice to make." Coulson smiled grimly, jaw pulsing. "Which of you idiots is going to try and stop me?"_ _

__*_ _

__Pepper broke off mid-tirade to look around the console room, her eyes landing accusingly on Tony, which was really not fair because she could accuse him of anything under a variety of suns but he wasn't sure the punishment fit the crime here. "Where are we going?"_ _

__At least she'd stopped that hollow-eyed staring from before, there was only so much of that a guy could take before he took a deep breath and started poking absentmindedly until he got a reaction. Anger was always preferable to apathy, in Tony's book, being the sort not to give a shit what people thought as long as they were thinking about him. He rotated the hovering screens, punching in a few numbers with a carefully calculated shrug. "I, ah," Tony tried, unable to meet her eyes, although he didn't really know under what cirumstances he'd ever be able to do that again anyway, "I'm taking you home."_ _

__"What." It sounded a bit more like a blow to the kidneys than an actual question, but Tony tried for an answer anyway._ _

__"Well, it's just, you've been through a--"_ _

__"Is this what you're doing? Dumping me off somewhere so you don't have to deal with--" She broke off again, arms falling to her sides as she ventured closer. "You know, you already tried that, Tony."_ _

__"That wasn't about this," he defended, turning to face her, frozen when he met her eyes. "That was a totally unrelated--"_ _

__"Yes, I remember, you were dying," she snapped. "And instead of telling me, telling anybody, you just _pushed me away_!" Pepper burned like a forest fire, like a supernova engulfing a galaxy, her hands clenched into white fists. "You just keep pushing me away, Mechanic, and I'm getting sick of it. That whole...clusterfuck with Stane, and then you left me stranded to watch Phil die, and now this? Do you want to be alone? Is this you firing me because I'm not good enough for you?" Tony interjected with a growly whine of protest, but she held up a hand. "I'd say you just prefer your master assassins, but you clearly don't do much better by them, so tell me why you keep _locking me out_ -"_ _

__"Because I don't want to hurt you!" Tony blurted, his own hand clutching at the console so hard it was going numb, his throat raw with honesty. "I keep on doing it, leading you right into danger when I should be keeping you safe, but I _can't_ , because everywhere I go people are hurt, people die, everyone on my entire planet, everyone I care about, especially the ones I care about--"_ _

__Close to panicking, he forced himself to stop and breathe deeply. Pepper's brow twisted. "Tony," she faltered._ _

__"That's why I can't keep you close to me, Pep, why I have to push you away." Tony wanted to turn away, show her that the conversation was over, but he was frozen in place, searching for a confirmation of fear or understanding or fucking anything._ _

__Pepper took a step closer, instead, looking right into his eyes like that first moment on the rooftop. "We can't just go back, Tony," she explained, "None of us. You showed us the entire universe, you can't unsee what we've seen," she stopped, corrected, "What I've seen, and expect me to go back to someplace I used to call home before I ever bothered to leave it. I'm ruined for normalcy, Tony, we all are. We've stood on a hundred different worlds over a thousand centuries, and there's no going back." She placed on tentative hand on the console beside him. as though hearing JARVIS' heart through the glass. "I mean, Nat's immortal. And Clint...he actually died and came back, I don't think anyone could forget that even if he wasn't still clearly mooning over..." Pepper flinched, mouth forming the name soundlessly._ _

__"I can still take you back to your life," he vowed, sliding his hand over to rest on hers, their fingers twining together like they were two pieces of a puzzle. "Before you get hurt, or killed, or something worse."_ _

__"You could." She smiled, and he traced the outline of her lips with his eyes again, suddenly regretting that it would be the last time. "But I don't want to go."_ _

__It was hard to tell which of them leaned in first, only that there was a lot of really good kissing and no further attempt to send Pepper home. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Virginia Protocol needed some work._ _

__"Of course it does," she whispered across the pillow, pressing their foreheads together and swinging a leg over his. "You don't need to send me home. I'm already there."_ _

__*_ _

__His back hit the wall, cutting off all chance of escape, and he gritted his teeth, glaring into the face of death and daring it to blink first._ _

__Truth be told, a part of the Mechanic had _really fucking missed this_. _ _

__"Ex-ter-min-ate," the machine growled, rolling forward like an unstoppable force about to make the acquaintance of an immovable object. Then, to cover all its bases, "You will be ex-ter-min-a-ted."_ _

__From this distance, the eyestalk was almost close enough to reach out and touch. The Mechanic smiled grimly._ _

__"Why are you smil-ing?" The Dalek croaked. "You are sur-roun-ded!"_ _

__The Mechanic leaned in closer, until his chest was almost level with the Dalek's arm, still grinning like a maniac. "Because I know something you don't know," he stage-whispered._ _

__The arrow whistled past his ear and impaled the center of the eyestalk with a sickening thud. The machine wailed in distress, rolling away like a car badly parked on a hill._ _

__Unable to resist the urge, he followed after for one step, two, then drove a repulsor-clad foot into the Dalek's side. Still wailing, the homicidal salt-shaker toppled horizontally. "Pathetic bastard," he muttered, just loud enough for it to overhear and whine at an even higher pitch. "Holding up, Barton?" he called over his shoulder._ _

__"You know me: point and shoot," Clint called. "I can do this all day."_ _

__"Nat? Pep?"_ _

__"Your girlfriend's a natural, Stark," Romanova shot over one shoulder, reloading a clip into one of her ever-present handguns as Pepper defended her six. "Aim almost as good as mine, and they used to call me the most dangerous woman in Europe."_ _

__"Yeah," interjected Clint, nocking another arrow as she turned away to keep firing on the advancing Daleks, "But they weren't talking about your aim, were they?"_ _

__Natasha swore a string of Russian that JARVIS was too far out to translate. Barton laughed. "Four o'clock, Mechanic." He spun left, repulsor raised. "Your other four!"_ _

__"Uh," he spun right, firing into the center of the eyestalk, then kicking at the metal-clad hull. This one spun backward, staying vertical for the most part. "Thanks, I think."_ _

__"Tony," Pepper called, shoulders jolting up with the kick of the weapon. "This one's... hovering?"_ _

__"Wipe them out," the Dalek called, and the rest of the defeated wiggled their shattered eyestalks in agreement. "De-stroy, de-feat, ex-ter-min-ate!"_ _

__"We can-not fire," croaked sideways salt-shaker feebly, gesturing with the weapon that had been twisted back into a knot of metal. The Mechanic took a glowing pride in his handiwork._ _

__"There are oth-er ways," screeched the hovering Dalek, and Tony turned, horror etching into his features. The smoggy air was studded with the metallic dalekanium balls, rising from their crumpled hulls. A self-defense mechanism, or a last resort._ _

__"Shit," he breathed._ _

__"What the hell?" Barton batted one away from his perch, pulling back an arrow to fire._ _

__"Clint, no, don't touch it!" Romanova warned. "Remember Istanbul?"_ _

__"They're going to take us all out, all of us at once," the Mechanic explained, ducking below a few more of the bombs. "Us and them," he spat, and felt his stomach churn with hate._ _

__The balls started blinking, and a white light filled his vision. "Are they going to blind us first?" Pepper asked._ _

__Tony squinted against the gathering light, uncertain until he saw the bricks of the building opposite... fading? "Teleport ray!"_ _

__The foursome flickered in and out of space, landing on hands and knees in the middle of a military-bunker-from-the-future sort of room. The Mechanic looked up to be greeted by a sight that made him wonder if they hadn't all died after all._ _

__"Welcome to Torchwood," Phil Coulson said mildly._ _

__*_ _

__"It's--"_ _

__"Bigger on the inside?" supplied Clint, "Yeah. Personally, I think he's overcompensating for something."_ _

__"I resent that," the Mechanic pouted. "I have it on good authority that I have no need to--"_ _

__"Tony, please don't discuss our sex life with my Dad," Pepper chastised._ _

__"Much appreciated, Potts," Barton breathed, and both Coulson and Natasha nodded quickly in agreement._ _

__"Some people have no sense of fun," the Mechanic grumbled. "Speaking of which: anyone in the mood for cocktails on the moon?"_ _

__Coulson shook his head, sparing a regretful glance into the great alien beyond that was JARVIS. "Sorry, I'm on call. Also, I think I'd be legally obligated to spy on you." He turned, taking Clint's hand in a firm shake, with an egregious side-eye to the archer's rippling biceps. "Barton. It's been a...real pleasure," he faltered._ _

__"Actually, I was wondering, since you're not dead." He glanced sidelong at JARVIS. "You still up for drinks?"_ _

__"Are you kidding?" Phil smiled brightly, still every inch the professional. "We just saved the world together. Let's have dinner."_ _

__*_ _

__The Mechanic pulled up short, glaring into the center of the console as the world outside faded into void with a roar of engines. "That son of a bitch kept my psychic paper."_ _

__*_ _

__"This is wierd. Are you two plotting? Because you definitely look like you're plotting."_ _

__Pepper bit her lip as if to contain a laugh. Natalia smiled back at him politely. "What makes you say that, Mechanic?"_ _

__He narrowed his eyes when a soft giggle escaped Thing 1. Her evil Russian twin only grinned wider, leaning back against the wall for all the world as if she owned the place. Tony twitched. "You're patronizing me. I cannot believe you, Miss Romanova," he teased, with a mock-indignant glare._ _

__"I do my best," she admitted. Tony huffed, turning away to fiddle with JARVIS' screens, patting the console absentmindedly and pausing at the sound of another laugh escaping, this one sounding suspiciously like both members of the Plotting Redhead Coalition in near-unison. Which, he hadn't actually known Nat _could_ laugh._ _

__"Oh my God, it's true!"_ _

__"Like an old married couple," Natalia agreed._ _

__Pepper inhaled sharply. "Oh my God, I'm his mistress." The pair of them went off again while the Mechanic tried to ignore them and look like he was doing something besides staring blankly at an itrelevant flight chart. "I'm the other woman."_ _

__"Watch your back," Natalia warned in low, mocking tones. "JARVIS will dump you into space while you sleep."_ _

__"On the contrary, Miss Potts, I'm hardly a jealous old biddy. I'm very happy for the both of you," chimed a very familiar third party._ _

__"JARVIS!" he snapped, and the two of them turned to him with matching looks of smug amusement. If J hadn't been incorporeal, Tony suspected he would look much the same. "Et tu, Brute?" he moaned churlishly at the vaulted ceiling._ _

__"I was blackmailed, Sir," the AI fibbed._ _

__"Whatever." Tony threw up his hands. "I'm going back to the lab."_ _

__He could have sworn that JARVIS winced. "Sir, with all due respect, I'm restricting access to the labs until further notice. Perhaps a few hours sleep?"_ _

__His eyes narrowed. "I'm fine. Override."_ _

__"JARVIS, initiate the HAL-9000 Protocol," Natalia said coolly._ _

__"Override that,"_ _

__"Cancel override, and deadlock it." She stood, making up for height with unchallengeable menace. "Tony, you've slept six hours over the past three days at most."_ _

___Four_ , he corrected mentally, but bit down on his tongue. Sleep was hard to come by, and hardly worth the effort these days. He let his eyes flutter shut, sinking into Pepper's waiting embrace. "Tony," she whispered. "Is this about New York?" He grunted, ignoring the panicked gallop his hearts began to thud aa best he could. "We defeated the Daleks. You destroyed them, they're all gone."_ _

__"Not all of them," he corrected bitterly._ _

__Pepper shook her head, pulling away. "We won, Tony."_ _

__"No," he growled, shrugging her hands from his shoulders. "I lost a long time ago. They'll just keep coming back. One day, I'll lose again and the whole universe will burn. I can't let that happen."_ _

__"And killing youself slowly through lack of sleep will help?"_ _

__"Don't you understand?" he snapped, grip on the edge of the console white as bone. "I _can't_ sleep." Exhaling a  slightly ragged breath, he amended. "And when I do, I h--" Tony bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood. _ _

__Pepper eyed him sadly, her lips pursed in a disappointed frown. "When are you going to start trusting me, Tony?"_ _

__*_ _

__Nat paused so smoothly and suddenly that he nearly tripped over her from behind, gaze flickering to the side._ _

__"What?" Pepper asked, peering over her shoulder as the Mechanic subtly fired up the repulsor. "Is someone following us?"_ _

__There was a long pause, after which the assassin exhaled slowly, shaking her head. "It's just a statue."_ _

__Tony looked less than comforted, if anything a deeper wariness settling into his posture. "Those can be dangerous." He spun to stare accusingly at the weathered figure carved in stone, eyes almost comically wide, were it not for the grim set to his mouth._ _

__"Stark," Romanova ventured, but Pepper continued for her. "I really hope what you're saying makes sense to you, because I don't follow."_ _

__The Mechanic ignored them, wasting another few seconds on the immobile angel statue before turning away with a shrug. "Doesn't matter," he grumbled. "Like you said, just a statue."_ _

__"I ran off with a madman," sighed Pepper fondly, as the three of them continued on beneath the golden light of the streetlamps, none of them noticing the first flicker against the backdrop of a fifty-first century sunset._ _

__*_ _

__It would be an easy thing to assume that the touch of an angel was soft and cool. Maybe that it felt like Pepper's hand on his face,  or her lips on his forehead. Failing that, it would be safe to assume that an angel's touch was firm and solid, an unyielding stone backhand that sent him tumbling to the ground._ _

__Actually, it felt like a dagger being jammed between his ribs and  twisted until the bones shattered. "Never again," the Mechanic gasped, reaching forward to brace himself and stand. His head spun with the chronic displacement inertia, that force that wanted to keep him spinning forever in one direction until he was absorbed entirely into his own time stream. "Fucking _angels_."_ _

__Silence followed this proclamation, such an eerie absence of response that he wondered if it had even been worth the effort, and if it hadn't, how to find her. All of time to pick through, he weighed, swaying as he stood as smoothly as possible, and not a goddamn clue where to start. "JARVIS?" Tony inquired._ _

__"Still online, Sir. Currently scanning for Miss Romanova's signature."_ _

__"She's not here. Cut all power to the auxiliary tracking program, find me that bracelet."_ _

__"With all due respect--"_ _

__"It'll take years, I know," Tony finished. "What am I supposed to do, J, give up?" He pulled up a holo-screen and began to type away, bypassing as many failsafes as he could, watching the calculation time tick down too slowly._ _

__"Perish the thought, Sir."_ _

__A grim smile twisted his lips. "Sorry about this, by the way." The screens flickered, large red lettering stamped across the faces. _Voice interface down_. "Greater good and all." _ _

__JARVIS didn't reply. The Mechanic let the facetious smile fall, grinding his teeth together as he swiped a finger dismissively across all the screens and watched them flicker and fizzle out of sight. Exhaling slowly, Tony turned to peer casually over the balcony at the well-dressed crowd milling below. Some kind of a benefit, probably, full of rich people who lied through their teeth and had dozens of vaguely incestuous affairs._ _

__What the hell, he considered, folding the gauntlet back into a thin metal band at one wrist and straightening his collar. He needed a drink, anyway._ _

__Tony's head was swimming with vodka martini and raw time distortion as he scanned the partygoers with a bored sort of detatchment. God, it had been too long. It was wierd, actually, being in a commited-ish relationship in this kind of atmosphere. So many people so desperate for sex._ _

__It was surreal, knowing that he was here for a different purpose. Tony rested his eyes a moment, fingertips brushing against his still-sore chest. He'd been so sure, clapping the vortex manipulator to one wrist, turning away to bid Pepper a cursory 'I'll be back late, don't wait up' smile as he dove in after Natalia. The best laid plans, he supposed, eyeing the still-smoking wreck of a device meant to be their ticket home._ _

__He and Romanova, they both had a long time to wait._ _

__Tipping back the rest of the drink, then clinking it against the bar, he was glad to find himself so well-anchored on the marble surface. As it was, he wavered a little, and would probably have staggered and fallen on his ass if he wasn't such a lucky bastard, all things considered. "Nat?" he meant to call, but the sound was no more than a harsh and disbelieving whisper in practice._ _

__Still, she seemed to hear, turning halfway to him with one crimson eyebrow in perfect arch. Red and black, he'd always though of those as her colors, but the eggshell blue number she was currently sporting had him reconsidering. Probably real fur, too. Natalia stared down her nose at him for a long moment, during which he took in her icy expression and realized that this wasn't his Natalia, just a mirror. Younger._ _

__Maybe five years younger, he realized, and clenched his jaw so hard he thought it would dislocate. "Top her off, sweetheart," he directed the buxom barmaid, with a white flash of something hard to mistake for a smile._ _

__When he looked back, the younger Nat had moved on, if not forgotten entirely._ _

__*_ _

__"Who are you?"_ _

__He spun, not fast enough, and ended up pinned against that balcony. "So forward, Miss Romanova. I like a woman who knows what she wants."_ _

__She smiled mirthlessly. "I want you to tell me how you know my name."_ _

__"We've met before."_ _

__"I never forget a face. Especially not one like yours."_ _

__"What's wrong with my face?"_ _

__She stepped back, arms crossing in defense and readiness. "It doesn't match your eyes. Those are old eyes."_ _

__He gave himself one more minute to pretend that he was dreaming, and in a minute the sky would open and swallow him and the Daleks and the nuke and he'd feel himself asphyxiating all over again. Nightmares, he could get over. This conversation was something that killed more of him every time. Because then there was no turning back until he was standing over someone's grave, or worse._ _

__"I'm the Mechanic."_ _

__"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"_ _

__It...stung a little, actually, the total lack of recognition, even expected and rational as it was. Unsatisfied with the answer, she arched an eyebrow further. And dear God, he thought, her eyes were so _cold_. "I'm sorry," he breathed. "So sorry, Nat." _ _

__The Natalia who had never met him looked back warily, one hand drifting to her side. Probably a conceled weapon or ten, if he knew her. "We've met, but I've never seen you before. How does that work?"_ _

__"It's not that complicated," he rolled his eyes. "Well. Maybe a little. About the level of quantum physics, which isn't that bad once you understand the whole probability amplitude thing." He tapped a finger absentmindedly on the arc reactor. "Do I have a doctorate in that? Anyway. Yeah, I'm a time traveller."_ _

__Her eyes narrowed. "Bullshit."_ _

__"Could be. Or, I could be over eight hundred years old, with memories reaching back to the dawn of creation and spanning a thousand galaxies in between." He winked, unable to fully resist the urge. "Look at these eyes again. Think whatever you want."_ _

__Paling slightly, she eyed him up and down, crossing the fine semantic line between wariness and awe. When they lighted again on his face, a somber quirk lifted her lips. "The apology."_ _

__The Mechanic winced, resisting the semiconscious urge to wrap a hand around her wrist and ensure that she was solid and there. "It's not important."_ _

__"Now that's definitely bullshit."_ _

__"Yes," he admitted. "It's better that way."_ _

__"Why? What could you possibly do to me? What are you apologizing for?"_ _

__The truth twisted and roiled in his stomach, trying to claw its way out of his mouth in a desparate sob. "I've got red in my ledger, okay?"_ _

__"What, and a sorry will wipe it out?"_ _

__"Nothing can," he choked quietly. "There's nothing I can fucking do about it, Romanova, so just..." He thought he was about to be sick and leaned over the railing, the chronic displacement inertia swirling up through his head again. "I tried everything. Please, just remember I tried."_ _

__"What, not to let me die?" Outwardly, she seemed disbelieving, scathing even, but her eyes were stormy._ _

__A short bark of humorless laugher tore from his lips. "No, you're covered on that front. Immortal, actually. Least I could do after you saved my life," he lied easily. People needed convincing, he justified with only the barest flicker of guilt._ _

__"What makes you think I'll do it again?"_ _

__"Save my life? Hell, I don't know why you did in the first place. Maybe you fall in love with me."_ _

__Nat snorted. "Unlikely."_ _

__"Too old for you?" he ventured, stepping around her. "Actually, it was probably because of the deal we're making right now."_ _

__Raised eyebrow climbing still higher, she drawled, "And that is?"_ _

__"Immortality, for one. And after that, freedom." She nodded once, a clear, 'go on'. He coughed lightly. "I have a ship, build him myself. He'll take you anywhere and everywhere in time and space. I'm just the chauffeur, really. And the Mechanic, if needed. Maybe a tour guide. Hypothetically, of course."_ _

__"And what would I have to _hypothetically_ do?"_ _

__He grinned. "Find me again. When I'm poisoned, introduce me to Captain America. We got a deal?" It was sickening, really, what a fucking compulsive, self-absorbed liar he'd become over the years, he judged with a cheery smile. "By the way," he added, shaking her hand, "You can call me Tony Stark."_ _

__"Is that your real name?"_ _

__"Nope."_ _

__Natalia nodded in understanding, not letting go of his hand as she leaned in closer. "We're surrounded. Have you noticed?" It was something of a shock to the Mechanic, although somewhat understandable. He let his eyes flicker casually over her left shoulder for a split second, noting the soft rustle of feet even though he saw nothing. Today was the day for a frying pan and fire metaphor, he rationalized._ _

__"You or me?"_ _

__She raised an eyebrow. "The Hand? Not everything is about you. Duck, please."_ _

__It was just like it had always been between them, the easy banter, like they were made to fight for the same causes. He covered her back, of course, feeling a spark of pride at his familiarity with the way she moved and his ability to predict her next move and watch her gap. And if he caught a thin blade in midair with a blast from the repulsor before it could to her pretty face any damage, what was it?_ _

__He was trying for subtle with the life-saving, actually, though apparently unsuccessfully. The last Hand agent dropped to her feet, felled by a single sharp blow to the face, and Nat turned to eye him in something a little like wonder. "Alright, Tony Stark," she mused, dusting off the fur wrap she'd left on the railing for safekeeping. "I accept your deal."_ _

__*_ _

__He materialized inside the console room, not three feet from where Pepper sat, staring blankly at the darkened central console. She jumped at his arrival, looking up in anticipation. "Tony?"_ _

__Stomach still churning from the unprotected jump through time, the Mechanic twisted one side of his mouth in a sardonic half-smile, then lowered his gaze, shaking his head._ _

__"Oh, Tony," she faltered._ _

__*_ _

___I don't have anyone but you _, he'd once told Pepper. Once, that hadn't been technically true. Now, it was a disconcerting reality, not because he couldn't be satisfied with her, but because he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he lost her, too.__ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____"Mechanic. It's been a long time." Not so long, really, not for either of them in the grand scheme of the infinite universe, or compared with his eight-and-a-half century long life. Not long, even, for her, though her kind rarely lived through two hundred. On that scale, ten years or so was nothing._ _ _ _

____It was a lucky thing, too. If it had been much longer since that conference in Arcadia, back when Arcadia or any other city had still...well, existed._ _ _ _

____Anyway, he remembered her, vaguely enough. "You haven't changed a bit, Miss Hansen."_ _ _ _

____"You have. New face?"_ _ _ _

____"Third or fourth one I've tried on for size since I saw you last, but this one has stuck the longest."_ _ _ _

____She grinned brightly, eyes hooded. "I can see why. It's a...very good look, Mechanic."_ _ _ _

____"Down, girl. I'm taken."_ _ _ _

____Maya gasped in not-entirely-feigned shock. "You? In a relationship?"_ _ _ _

____"Actually, Maya darling, that's why I'm here. I was hoping..."_ _ _ _

____"I'm taken too, before you waste your breath."_ _ _ _

____"Not what I was going to suggest. Why does everyone always assume that I'm talking about sex?"_ _ _ _

____"Because you usually are, Mechanic."_ _ _ _

____Which was true enough, probably. Tony shrugged, sinking into the seat opposite her. "Do you remember that formula you were working on in Arcadia? The one targeting the healing sections of the brain?_ _ _ _

____Maya's eyes snapped fully from their half-lidded state, her drink sloshing over the rim as she sat up straighter. "Extremis?"_ _ _ _

____"That," he confirmed, with a point and snap. "I have a few ideas..."_ _ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____In retrospect, he should have realized Extremis and AIM were working together. Two pieces of a puzzle that slotted perfectly, and of course he wouldn't put two and two together until they'd scratched up JARVIS' paint trying to blow him up with human firebombs and taken Pepper. That last, though, was their number one mistake, and he intended to make every one of them pay through the nose for it, if she didn't get around to it first. "You're making a mistake, Maya." he growled, tugging on the handcuffs that bound him to the frame like some kind of kinky Dom/sub nightmare._ _ _ _

____She smiled politely, eyes half-lidded as ever, and closed the holo-screen. Pepper's agonized face flickered out of sight. "I thought you would be proud. After all, this is exactly what you wanted."_ _ _ _

____He stared at the space left empty by the screen, his heart feeling ready to tug out of his chest. As he processed her words, a pang of nauseous self-loathing flooded his head and made his ears ring. "What the hell did I ever do to you?" he choked._ _ _ _

____Brows knitting together, she turned to face him, hands clasped together as if in prayer. "You inspired me, Mr. Stark," Maya announced, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "So many brilliant ideas in that head of yours. Thirteen generations of warmongering beauty. You built so many wonderful instruments of death from nothing." Her smile widened into a half-crazed, half-worshipping baring of white teeth. "It's all in the name. Advanced Idea Mechanics," she sing-songed, accompanying each word with a fluid hand gesture, tracing the Gallifreyan in midair. "This is your legacy."_ _ _ _

____And that was...oh God, he was going to be sick._ _ _ _

____Both parties started when the gauntlet crashed through the window in a supersonic blur, encasing the Mechanic's arm like a second skin._ _ _ _

____The first blast knocked her back into the wall, where she gasped, winded, at least one broken rib hindering her from preventing Tony snapping the frame apart with a second, pocketing the handcuffs for safekeeping._ _ _ _

____He turned to leave, to hunt down Pepper and burn everything in his way, but Maya's wet chuckle stopped him. Her veins glowed orange, top layer of skin cracking like a desert under the summer sun. When the fire reached her hooded eyes, turning them molten gold, she stood in clear challenge._ _ _ _

____Shaking off his third blast like it was a bee sting, Maya surged forward, vicelike burning fingers wrapping around the repulsor to crush his arm to splinters. He pulled away with a ragged yell, falling back onto his hands, then rolled away to avoid a blast of actual fucking fire that failed to damage that line of white teeth despite having been actually breathed from her _mouth.__ _ _ _

____"Hansen, you're brilliant and I despise you," he muttured, then winced when she slammed bodily into him. "Also hot, goddamn," the Mechanic gasped._ _ _ _

____"I try my best," she drawled, with a self-satisfied smirk, her skin shifting colors like a coal. Maya dragged a glowing finger across his face gently as he hissed, struggling to pull away from the scorching heat. "Though I do appreciate your noticing."_ _ _ _

____"Get your temperature play away from me," he growled, feeling his skin begin to blister beneath her touch._ _ _ _

____"What, no meddling in your precious commited relationship?"_ _ _ _

____"Is that what this is about?" he scoffed. "Jealousy?"_ _ _ _

____Her expression soured, and Maya wrenched the finger away, hitting him with a closed fist instead. Tony heard something crack as his head flew to the side. "This is about burning things down, Mechanic, and enjoying _every second of it_." He spat blood, head ringing as he heard her stand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an Extremis arsenal to unleash and a galaxy to heal."_ _ _ _

____"Heal," he spluttered, "By turning them into organic bombs?"_ _ _ _

____Maya flashed another lopsided grin, smoke curling from her lips. "They'll be in my debt and under my control all at once. It's almost poetic, really." He stared in wide-eyed horror, and she heaved a put-upon sigh. "Well. The Merchant of Death I knew would have appreciated it." She paused, turning back to him. "Thank you for helping me finish the formula, by the way. Don't try to leave."_ _ _ _

____She melted the door to the wall on her way out, leaving the Mechanic alone with the softly flickering screens._ _ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____At first, he thought the faint buzzing was a symptom of whatever complicated head-wound and second degree burn he was experiencing, until he saw the green light pulsing gently at the wrist of the gauntlet. "Calculation complete. Miss Romanova's chronological locale has been determined."_ _ _ _

____A hysterical giggle burst from the Mechanic's throat. "Oh, JARVIS, I missed you, buddy."_ _ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____"Pep! I got you, relax," he instructed, reaching as far over the railing as he could. "Just look at me!"_ _ _ _

____Straining for his outstretched hand in turn, Pepper let out a soft noise of distress, wailing when the entire structure of the ship rattled ominously. She slipped a little further down the ramp. It wasn't close enough._ _ _ _

____The Mechanic swallowed. "I can't reach." She shook her head, struggling and straining. "Virginia," he pleaded, "I can't. You have to let go." Her lips formed his name, begging him silently to reach just a little more. "I'll catch you," he vowed. "I'll catch you, I promise."_ _ _ _

____Pepper went still, her blue eyes meeting his, hair streaming like fire around her face. Then the structure jerked again, and she slid free with a little scream of terror, scrabbling for Tony's hand as he inhaled sharply, diving to close his fingers around hers._ _ _ _

____They slipped through like rainwater, and she fell._ _ _ _

____AIM's mastermind peered in vague interest over the railing at the ground so far below, frowning. "I would have caught her, personally."_ _ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____"I thought..."_ _ _ _

____"I was dead?" she interrupted. He shrugged. "What, because I fell two hundred feet?"_ _ _ _

____Tony nodded, mute for once in his life._ _ _ _

____"Why are we here?" she demanded._ _ _ _

____"I--" he cut off. "Maya, the girl you just--"_ _ _ _

____"Oh."_ _ _ _

____"No, no, she's going to," he stopped, reworded, "was going to send out these missiles and infect the entire galaxy with--"_ _ _ _

____"With the same thing that's been done to me?"_ _ _ _

____"Extremis, yeah," he confirmed, watching the glow beneath her skin recede. Actually, it was sort of...well, hot. In a way. "But the countdown should be stopped now that she's been reduced to ash. Which was...awesome, by the way."_ _ _ _

____At which point, the machinery that should have been shut down shifted, ready to launch the missiles. "Fuck."_ _ _ _

____Pepper followed his gaze, eyes widening. "It just never stops with you, does it?"_ _ _ _

____"It's okay," he reassured. "I can do this. I almost had this back when I was breaking out of that lab. I..." he trailed off, watching the lines of code scroll by faster than even he could track. Wordlessly, he closed the screen. "Come on, honey."_ _ _ _

____"Can you shut it down?" she asked, worriedly. "Tony, tell me you shut it down."_ _ _ _

____"Come on," he echoed, dull and apathetic, taking her hand in his._ _ _ _

____"Tony." Gradually, he lifted his eyes, knowing the moment she saw the torment there. "Can you stop the countdown?"_ _ _ _

____"No," he admitted. Pepper pulled her hand away. "Pep. Virginia, please." A spark flickered across her bared arm, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Oh, no you don't. I refuse. Please, Pepper, I can't fix this. Just let me fix you."_ _ _ _

____"What, am I broken?"_ _ _ _

____"No," denied Tony vehemently. "No, Pep, you're perfect. I love you and you're the most perfect woman in the fucking universe."_ _ _ _

____She took one step further away, a soft smile on her face as the flames began to dance under her skin. "I love you too, Tony," Pepper whispered, and lit up like a supernova, crumpling and melting the missiles where they stood._ _ _ _

____JARVIS shifted, enveloping him in a cocoon of safely where he could hear the roar of her swan song in his ears, reaching out for the perfect shadow that she left behind._ _ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____"It's about goddamn time, Stark...oh." Natalia surged forward, catching him as he wavered and fell forward. "Tony, what the hell happened? Where's Pepper?"_ _ _ _

____The Mechanic shook all over, feeling his bones rattle and his hearts pound an inconstant rhythm. He closed his eyes tight against the mounting panic, which served only to see her fire seared onto his retinas. "She's dead."_ _ _ _

____*_ _ _ _

____The void of the Medusa Cascade was a good place to lose yourself. There were rumors about things in the dark spaces between stars, things with far too many claws and teeth. The rumors as to their origins were divided, either speculating that they came from the mouth of hell and devoured any they caught wandering the void, or that time and madness drove their victims to become them._ _ _ _

____It was a place for the lost, and you could only get there if you were truly desperate. If you needed something badly enough, you could find the void, or the void would find you. But you could bet on only one certainty in its ever-shifting Lovecraftian depths, and that was that it would do everything in its power to keep you from achieving that goal._ _ _ _

____The Mechanic wanted nothing, and so the void paid him no mind. He floated through the silent darkness for a length of time impossible even for a Time Lord to discern._ _ _ _

_____"Where are you going now?"_ _ _ _ _

_____"You're not coming with me?"_ _ _ _ _

_____Romanova shook her head. "I'm working on something at the moment." When he narrowed his eyes, she further explained that she and a scientist she'd met were working to develop an anti-serum. "His name's Bruce Banner. I think you'd like him."_ _ _ _ _

_____"Do you?" he teased._ _ _ _ _

_____"I'm not alone, Mechanic," she explained. "You shouldn't be, either. That's the important thing."_ _ _ _ _

____He sat on JARVIS' roof, safe within the air field surrounding his newly repainted surface, a bottle at his side with less liquor left in it than he cared to admit. Maybe it was best if he stayed on his own this time around, he decided. He did more harm than good, keeping around his misfit toys as some kind of subconcious memento mori._ _ _ _

_____"I think I'll take my chances, Nat."_ _ _ _ _

_____"You say that now, but I think someone's going to catch your eye. You won't be able to help yourself."_ _ _ _ _

_____"We'll see," he acknowledged, not agreeing in the least._ _ _ _ _

____Far in the distance, a glint like a falling star caught his eye._ _ _ _


End file.
